Japan Is Startled by Prime Minister’s Grueling Sleep Schedule

Sanae Takaichi has said she gets just “zero to three hours” of sleep a night, prompting a debate in the country over work-life balance.

Monday was Sea Day in Japan, a public holiday when many people escape the summer heat by swimming, surfing and lounging at the beach. But not Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Ms. Takaichi spent the holiday weekend rereading policy documents and dealing with a backlog of thousands of emails, according to a social media post on Tuesday. She wrote that she eked out a “full five hours of sleep for the first time in ages” — better than the “zero to three hours” she said she is accustomed to. And she said she spent her limited free time ironing undergarments, sewing fraying skirts and reinforcing loose jacket buttons.

With her comments, Ms. Takaichi seemed eager to present herself as a down-to-earth leader who doesn’t stop working on behalf of Japan’s citizens. Instead, her post, which has been viewed more than 31 million times, has set off a national debate about work-life balance and the hazards of sleep deprivation.

Toru Kunishige, an opposition lawmaker, warned that a prolonged lack of sleep “impairs judgment — much like a state of intoxication — and could pose a risk to national crisis management.”

Hiroyuki Konishi, another critic of Ms. Takaichi in Parliament, called for her resignation, saying, “The prime minister’s actual job is to set policy directions and issue instructions, not to pore over every last detail of a document.”

Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of a populist conservative party, described Ms. Takaichi as hard-working but added that “resting is also a job.”

Ms. Takaichi’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some commentators argued that Ms. Takaichi, the first woman to serve as prime minister in Japan, should be given more support in her position. While previous leaders often relied on their wives for help at home, Ms. Takaichi appeared to be tackling more domestic duties, according to Yoko Iwama, a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

“Establishing a support system that allows a Japanese prime minister to focus entirely on their duties — without having to handle household chores personally — would contribute to women’s advancement in society,” Ms. Iwama wrote in the Nikkei, a prominent business newspaper.

- Author: Javier C. Hernández and Hisako Ueno. The New York Times

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