{"id":75172,"date":"2025-11-14T13:19:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T04:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/14\/japan-pm-two-hours-sleep-schedule-sanae-takaichi"},"modified":"2025-11-14T13:19:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T04:19:44","slug":"two-hours-a-night-japan-pms-sleep-schedule-prompts-concerns-about-work-life-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=75172","title":{"rendered":"Two hours a night: Japan PM\u2019s sleep schedule prompts concerns about work-life balance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Takaichi caused a stir last week after she summoned aides to her office for a 3am meeting to prepare for a budget committee hearing<\/p>\n<p>Japan\u2019s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has said she gets by on just two to four hours sleep a night \u2013 prompting concern over her commitment to a better work-life balance among the country\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/nov\/13\/giraffepods-hot-masks-and-a-massage-pillow-testing-japans-answers-to-the-perfect-power-nap\">fatigued <\/a>employees.<\/p>\n<p>Pointing to the bags beneath her eyes, Takaichi told MPs that she survives on minimal sleep \u2013 a habit she shares with her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/oct\/04\/sanae-takaichi-the-new-leader-of-japans-liberal-democratic-party-who-cites-thatcher-as-an-influence\">political hero Margaret Thatcher<\/a> \u2013 after being asked how she would tackle Japan\u2019s notoriously long working hours.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/14\/japan-pm-two-hours-sleep-schedule-sanae-takaichi\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Takaichi caused a stir last week after she summoned aides to her office for a 3am meeting to prepare for a budget committee hearingJapan\u2019s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has said she gets by on just two to four hours sleep a night \u2013 prompting concern &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,88,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-japan","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75173,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75172\/revisions\/75173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}