As workers push for better work-life balance and four-day workweeks, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is moving in the opposite direction. The 65-year-old leader set off a firestorm on social media when she shared her plans for Sea Day—a public holiday when many Japanese citizens head to the beach.
“Today’s holiday felt like such a true blessing—finally getting a full five hours of sleep for the first time in ages,” Takaichi wrote on X in a post that’s garnered over 35 million views. “Ever since taking office as prime minister, zero-to-three hours has been the norm.”
For Takaichi, the lack of sleep and working “from early morning until late at night” is something she believes is largely a point of pride rather than a cause for concern. For the past several weekends, Takaichi added she’s been “holed up” at the prime minister’s residence reading stacks of documents tied to her legislative agenda.
Unlike in the U.S., the official residence of the Japanese prime minister does not employ domestic staff like housekeepers, so Takaichi said the holiday also gave her enough time to tackle a backlog of household chores, including ironing handkerchiefs and undergarments and sewing frayed skirt hems and loose jacket buttons.
“I can dive back in and give it my all starting tomorrow!” she concluded.
Japan’s prime minister has long embraced marathon hours—and critics say it’s a problem
While it’s hardly unusual for world leaders—or Fortune 500 CEOs—to boast about grueling schedules, Takaichi has developed a reputation for pushing herself to the extreme.
After becoming Japan’s first female prime minister in October 2025, Takaichi said she planned to “discard the term ‘work-life balance’ for myself. I will work, work, work, work, and work.”
Soon after taking office, she faced scrutiny for summoning staff to a meeting at 3 a.m.—an action she later linked to a broken home fax machine, requiring aides to help her access another office before an early meeting.
Her latest comments about surviving on little sleep have revived concerns about whether such a schedule is sustainable. The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults ages 18 to 64 get seven to nine hours of sleep each night, while adults 65 and older should aim for seven to eight.
Opposite lawmaker Toru Kunishige warned that chronic sleep deprivation, “impairs judgment— much like a state of intoxication—and could pose a risk to national crisis management,” reported The New York Times. Another politician argued that “resting is also a job.”
Fortune reached out to Japan’s prime minister office for further comment.
While Japan’s Takaichi glorifies long hours, Tokyo is pushing workers to do the opposite
The debate over Takaichi’s schedule is particularly striking because the country has spent recent years moving toward a more flexible work culture after several high-profile cases of “karoshi,” or death from overwork.
In Tokyo, government officials implemented a four-day workweek policy last year in an effort to boost work-life balance amidst rising burnout and falling birthrates.
“We must build a society where everybody can balance work and family life, and one step forward is the four-day workweek,” Governor of Tokyo H.E. Yuriko Koike told Fortune last year. “Flexible systems like this allow both women and men to choose a work style that reflects their circumstances.”
The push also reflects changing expectations among younger workers. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Gen Z say work-life balance is a top priority when choosing an employer—ranking it ahead of pay, according to Randstad’s 2025 Workmonitor report.
Advocates have argued that shorter workweeks can improve both well-being and productivity. In 2019, Microsoft Japan tested a four-day workweek and reported a 40% increase in productivity.
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