Text of statement by Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto at a Tokyo news conference on July 13 announcing his resignation, as broadcast by Japanese television:

Mr Hashimoto in January 1996

Following the outcome of yesterday's upper house election, I conveyed my intention to resign as party president at the party executive committee meeting just a while ago, and the committee approved my resignation.

The responsibility for the defeat in the latest upper house election rests entirely upon myself.

Hashimoto's statement (in Japanese)

In place of a joint plenary meeting of party members of both houses of the Diet, I plan to have the party's General Council, as the party's supreme decision-making body, hold a meeting tomorrow, during which I will report on the executive committee's approval of my resignation.

I wish to apologize for putting you through various hardships for such a long time.

That is all I have to say.