‘I bathe, wash dishes, apply make-up’: Japan’s PM says busier than men who came before

Japan’s prime minister said on Wednesday she probably spent “three or four more hours” than her male predecessors tackling household duties on top of her already packed daily schedule.

“In the morning, I bathe, fix breakfast and then wash dishes, not to mention apply make-up,” Sanae Takaichi, elected last year as Japan’s first woman prime minister, told parliament.

“I feel like I’m spending three or four more hours than male prime ministers doing these things.”

A self-described workaholic, Takaichi has previously said she sleeps just two to four hours a night and sometimes scheduled 3am staff meetings.

Gender roles are rigid in Japan and women are chronically under-represented in politics, with just 68 women lawmakers elected out of 465 seats up for grabs at the last Lower House election in February.

Discussions about Takaichi’s time management came up when a ruling coalition member asked her about the marathon hours Japanese prime ministers customarily spend attending parliamentary sessions.

It is common for Japanese leaders to devote five to seven hours a day being grilled by opposition lawmakers or otherwise just sitting in parliament.

Citing a study, lawmaker Fumitake Fujita of the Japan Innovation Party said that, in 2022, Japan’s prime minister attended parliamentary sessions for 72 days, vs 50 days in Britain and 13 in Germany.

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While acknowledging the importance of legislative discussions, Fujita said: “The fact that our leader is confined for such long hours to parliament isn’t in line with the global standards.”

Takaichi said in a post on social media in July that she was “getting consumed until dawn with poring over documents brought home from work and those related to parliamentary questioning”.

“I do enjoy reading these piles of documents at midnight that I took home,” she said on Wednesday.

“But it is difficult for me to squeeze out time to buckle down and think with a clear head” about “the future direction of this country or my grand vision for it”, she said.