TOKYO—Japan’s national police chief said Thursday he will resign to take responsibility over shortfalls in security that an investigation by his own agency showed did not adequately safeguard former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from a fatal shooting of at a campaign speech last month.
National Police Agency Chief Itaru Nakamura’s announcement came as his agency released a report blaming flaws in police protection—from planning to guarding at the scene—that led to Abe’s assassination July 8 in Nara in western Japan.
Nakamura said he took the former prime minister’s death seriously and that he submitted his resignation to the National Public Safety Commission earlier Thursday….