A JAPANESE MINISTER had a rather unusual reason for his swift resignation this week – his blood type.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Ryu Matsumoto was the country’s reconstruction minister but tendered his resignation on Tuesday morning.

He was appointed to the role following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami which wreaked havoc on Japan.

The decision came after a TV news clip showed him giving out to the governor of Miyagi prefecture over keeping him waiting for an appointment.

As a way of explaining his behaviour, he said:

I’m a type B and can have the tendency to be simplistic and straightforward at times. My intentions don’t always come across perfectly.

He’s not the first person to resign in an unusual way:

• In 2008,  Stewart Butterfield, the cofounder of Flickr, tendered his resignation to Yahoo with a bizarre email that opened with the line: “As you know, tin is in my blood”. He went on to state that his ability to contribute had dwindled to nothing “because of my advancing age”.  He was 35.
• Bell Belichick was the head coach of American football team the New York Jets for one day in 2000 before announcing his resignation, via a hand-written letter, as ‘HC of NYJ’. He followed this with what was described as a “rambling monologue” and seemed to suggest the team’s impending sale made him nervous.
• New York politician Anthony Weiner had to resign after his own president, Barack Obama, said that if he was in his shoes, he’d step down. The resignation came after Weiner was found to have had relationships with at least six women online via Facebook, Twitter and exchanged ‘intimate’ photographs with them.

For more information read this story in the Wall Street Journal>