Takaichi caused a stir last week after she summoned aides to her office for a 3am meeting to prepare for a budget committee hearing
Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has said she gets by on just two to four hours sleep a night – prompting concern over her commitment to a better work-life balance among the country’s fatigued employees.
Pointing to the bags beneath her eyes, Takaichi told MPs that she survives on minimal sleep – a habit she shares with her political hero Margaret Thatcher – after being asked how she would tackle Japan’s notoriously long working hours.
Takaichi caused a stir last week after she summoned aides to her office for a 3am meeting to prepare for a budget committee hearing that was due to start six hours later, weeks after she celebrated becoming Japan’s first female leader by promising to “work, work, work, work and work”.
“I sleep about two hours now, four hours at the longest,” she told MPs at a legislative committee meeting this week. “It’s probably bad for my skin,”
