Japan PM Takaichi Holds Unusual 3 A.M. Study Session

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi held a study session at the prime minister’s official residence from around 3 a.m. Friday to prepare for questions in her first parliamentary budget committee meeting as prime minister later that day. Although past prime ministers including Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, have held study meetings early in the morning, predawn sessions are highly unusual. Takaichi greeted reporters as she left the residence for members of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, or parliament, in Tokyo’s Akasaka district at 3:01 a.m. She arrived at the study session venue three minutes later. All of her secretaries participated in the session, which lasted about three hours, according to sources close to the prime minister. Takaichi later attended meetings of a government economic security panel and her cabinet before the meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee from 8:59 a.m. “Since it’s her first budget committee meeting, there seem to be questions that are difficult for her,” a government official said. “She probably wanted to put the draft responses prepared by administrative staff into her own words.” Takaichi is believed to have often stayed up all night to draft bills. She expressed her desire to ease the legal restrictions on working hours at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, on Thursday. Many have voiced concern that she may be working too much. “Rest is necessary to perform well,” former industry minister Ken Saito, a member of Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, said at the start of Friday’s Lower House Budget Committee meeting. “I want the prime minister to carry out her duties while taking breaks from time to time.” At a press conference the same day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said the government will address the working styles of Takaichi and her secretaries “appropriately in light of the government’s policy of fulfilling accountability while promoting work-life balance.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]