(Aug 24): Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi defended her tendency to remain at her residence unless she has official duties outside, saying it lets her work long hours without burdening her staff.  

“Work conducted at the official residence, such as meetings held there, are not reported as part of the prime minister’s daily schedule, but from my perspective it’s also a workplace,” Takaichi wrote on X on Saturday. In an unusual aside, she also expressed her surprise at spotting cockroaches at the residence.

Since becoming national leader late last year, Takaichi has become well known for a round-the-clock working style and a preference for poring over documents alone at her residence. In July, she wrote on X that she gets only “zero to three” hours of sleep each night. 

The Nikkei newspaper reported on Friday that since becoming prime minister Takaichi hasn’t left home at all on a majority of Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. In comparison, the previous three prime ministers spent between 3% and 16% of non-weekdays entirely at home, the newspaper calculated.

In her X posts that followed the report, Takaichi highlighted how she focuses on work while at her residence.

“I have created a working environment that is essentially no different from when I am working at the Prime Minister’s Office,” she wrote.  

Her posts underscore both her emphasis on solitary hard work and her frequent use of social media to convey her views.

A Bloomberg News analysis of her official schedule through July showed she met finance ministry officials 50% less often than the country’s previous two leaders, and held the fewest cabinet office meetings of any premier over the past 14 years. 

She also talks less to the media than her predecessors. Her direct appeal to voters via X and the contrast in her leadership style to the slow-moving consensus-based style of some of her predecessors are among the factors that helped her secure a historic election landslide in February. 

Still, her lone wolf style has made her the target of criticism by some opposition lawmakers and media commentators, some of whom have highlighted her preference of staying at her residence, near the prime minister’s office. Her opinion poll ratings have also fallen from elevated levels, with respondents citing her focus on passing legislation they see as detached from a more pressing need to address the cost-of-living crunch.

Takaichi’s intense focus on work at all hours has attracted attention since she became prime minister last year.

In November, Takaichi faced criticism when she arrived at the prime minister’s office at 3am to prepare for her first parliamentary debate, requiring aides to also attend the pre-dawn meeting.

In her posts on X at the weekend, she said she hoped to reduce the amount of time that she has to be accompanied by personal security officials, known as “SP officers”.

“On holidays, as well as early in the morning and late at night on weekdays, I try not to leave the Official Residence unless it is absolutely necessary. That is because whenever I go out, it requires a substantial number of SP officers and places a considerable burden on them,” she wrote.

The premier moved into the official residence in December, a brick building dating from 1929 that previous prime ministers have joked may be haunted. In a separate post on X on Saturday, Takaichi said she hadn’t seen any ghosts but she was shocked when she encountered cockroaches in the building.

After a secretary arranged for insect poison to be used around the building the cockroaches have stopped appearing, Takaichi said.

“I was relieved, but somehow also felt a little lonely,” she wrote. “Even a little sad.” 

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