Japan's DPJ leader quits after losing parliamentary seat

Banri Kaieda, leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), decided on Monday to quit over the party's failure in Sunday's general election.

The DPJ gained 73 seats in the vote for the parliament's 475- seat lower house, 11 more compared with the 2012 election, but Kaieda himself failed to secure a seat in his constituency.

He admitted the party failed to stop the runaway policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pledging to continue protecting the pacifist nature of Japan's war-renouncing Constitution.

During the election campaign, Kaieda criticized Abe's economic policy mix, or "Abenomics," for enlarging the country's wealth disparity.

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior Komeito partner took an overwhelming majority in the powerful chamber on Sunday with a combined 326 seats.