TOKYO – A recent social media post by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi lamenting her chronic sleep deprivation and demanding workload has drawn mixed reaction, fueling debate over Japan’s notorious work culture of extreme hours.
“Zero to three hours of sleep has become the norm” since taking office last October, Takaichi said in a post on X on Monday, saying that she spends her nights reviewing documents until dawn while doing household chores.
Takaichi said she had been “swamped with thousands of accumulated emails to deal with” during the three-day weekend through Monday, a national holiday, adding that she had “managed to sleep for five hours for the first time in a long while.”
The post drew quick reactions.
While describing Takaichi as “a person who works extremely hard,” Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People, said it is important for her to delegate so that she can focus on those tasks that only she can perform as the nation’s leader.
“Getting rest is also part of the job” as prime minister, Tamaki told a press conference on Tuesday.
Another opposition member joined Tamaki in expressing concern about how a lack of sleep, which he compared to a state of intoxication, could negatively impact how she runs the government.
Toru Kunishige, a lawmaker from the major opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, warned in his X post that prolonged sleep shortage could “impair judgment” and “pose a risk to the nation’s crisis management.”
It is not the first time that Takaichi has caused a stir with her remarks on work. Shortly after being chosen as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, she vowed to “work, work, work, work and work.”
That phrase topped last year’s buzzword list but still riled those who took it as glorifying a culture of placing importance on long work hours that the government itself has been seeking to change.
On X, some users defended Takaichi by saying she was working very hard, but many others were critical, with comments such as “Trying to show how hard you are working will not win public support” or “Hire someone to help with the housework.”
Some suspect that Takaichi’s post was politically motivated and an attempt to gain sympathy as the approval ratings for her Cabinet have slid in media polls since the controversial enactment of the revised Imperial House Law on July 17.
When asked whether Takaichi’s remarks contradict the government’s push for working practice reforms, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara defended her at a news conference on Wednesday, saying the prime minister has no intention of “rejecting the concept of work-life balance.”
Takayuki Kobayashi, the ruling party’s policy chief, told reporters on Thursday that Takaichi remained energetic and in good shape but that he had told her, “The workload is extraordinary, but please get some sleep.”