Cockroach and Short Nights Aim to Boost Image of 'Lonely' Japanese Prime Minister
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi seemed unstoppable on platform X in recent days: in ten days she posted nearly forty messages, including eleven in one weekend. In this storm of posts, she defended her controversial economic policy, responded to accusations of online defamation by her staff, and complained about her lonely existence as prime minister.
With this, Takaichi appears to want to boost her image, as her popularity among the public is sharply declining. One of her most striking posts was about a cockroach in the official residence. After a staff member removed the insect with pesticide, she said she felt "a little lonely, or maybe sad." The post was viewed almost 25 million times.
Declining popularity
When Takaichi took office last year, seven out of ten Japanese supported her cabinet. In February, her Liberal Democratic Party won 316 of the 465 seats: a historic victory and a two-thirds majority. This allowed her to push almost all her plans through parliament. The victory was largely attributed to Takaichi's popularity.
But since then, it has eroded. In the past month, support for the prime minister fell in eight nationwide polls, to an average of four to five out of ten Japanese.
Rising prices play a major role in this. The weak yen makes imported energy and food more expensive. At the end of July, a dollar cost over 164 yen, the weakest level in nearly forty years. Japan and the United States intervened. The dollar temporarily dropped to 155 yen but now costs nearly 160 yen again.
Male succession to the throne
At the same time, Takaichi used her majority for legislative proposals that opposition parties dismiss as symbolic politics, far from the daily concerns of many Japanese.
For example, she insisted on male-only succession to the emperor. This means the popular Princess Aiko cannot ascend the throne, while eight out of ten Japanese support a female emperor. Takaichi also made desecration of the flag punishable. She thus seems mainly to want to satisfy her nationalist base.
Her foreign policy is also under fire. Relations with China are at a low point since Takaichi said Japan might deploy its military if China attacks Taiwan. Critics inside and outside her party also found her response to Putin's visit to the Northern Territories too weak. Russia has controlled these islands since 1945, but Japan still claims them.
'Japan's Iron Lady'
Takaichi warns that a lack of trust could hinder her policy. The storm of posts seems intended to win back voters directly. For example, she defends herself on X against accusations regarding campaign videos in which political rivals were smeared. One of her staff allegedly asked the creator to spread those videos. Both the staff member and Takaichi deny this.
Takaichi also refutes criticism that she skips meetings and hardly leaves the official residence. "For me, it is also a workplace," she wrote. She presents herself as a prime minister who works almost day and night.
Takaichi has been building that image for some time. She calls herself "Japan's Iron Lady," after Margaret Thatcher. The conservative British former prime minister reportedly slept four hours a night; Takaichi says she sleeps even less. "I throw work-life balance overboard and will work, work, work and keep working," she said at her inauguration.
Last month, she wrote on X that she had "for the first time in a long time" slept five hours. Normally, she says she sleeps zero to three hours. Deep into the night, she reads files, after which she says she does the dishes, laundry, and cleaning herself.
Warnings against sleep deprivation
Critics doubt that image of the efficient home worker. According to Bloomberg, Takaichi met officials from the Ministry of Finance about half as often as her two predecessors. She also held the fewest meetings with the cabinet office of all prime ministers in the past fourteen years and speaks less often with journalists.
In open letters, experts warn that people who get too little sleep think and make decisions less well. Japan has been trying to reduce overtime for years, but Takaichi seems to present her lack of sleep as proof of dedication. Moreover, she wants to relax rules that protect workers against excessively long working hours.
Takaichi does not lack reach: her posts have now been viewed tens of millions of times and shared tens of thousands of times. In two weeks, local elections in the southern prefecture of Okinawa will show whether that attention actually brings votes to her party.