Japan PM says she’s running on 3 hours’ sleep—and ironing her own clothes

In a strikingly personal social media post, Sanae Takaichi offered a glimpse of power stripped of its usual ceremony: policy files, unanswered emails and a holiday spent catching up on laundry.

Japan’s prime minister says a full night’s sleep has become an exception.

Sanae Takaichi, in an unusually candid post on X, described working through weekends on budget and growth-policy documents, then returning from official duties to the domestic routines that still awaited her: cleaning the bath, dinner, washing up, laundry and light tidying.

“Zero-to-three hours” of sleep had become normal since taking office, she wrote. A five-hour rest on Marine Day, a national holiday, felt like a luxury.

7月に入ってからの土日は、公邸で『骨太方針』『日本成長戦略』『地域未来戦略』に関する分厚い資料を早朝から深夜まで読み続け、2週目は与党審査で加筆修正された部分を熟読検討するなど、高市内閣が初めて骨太方針や概算要求段階から関われる令和９年度予算や本格的に取り組める中長期の成長戦略に向…

— 高市早苗 (@takaichi_sanae) July 20, 2026

The disclosure is striking not for a new policy announcement but for its plainness. Leaders routinely invoke long hours; few describe, in public, the backlog of handkerchiefs and undergarments, loose jacket buttons and frayed skirt hems that accumulate while governing a country.

Takaichi wrote, “Today’s holiday felt like such a true blessing—finally getting a full five hours of sleep for the first time in ages (ever since taking office as prime minister, zero-to-three hours has been the norm), and then this afternoon, I tackled a huge backlog all at once: ironing the handkerchiefs and undergarments from untouched loads of laundry, plus some sewing (hemming frayed skirt edges and reinforcing loose buttons on jackets).”

She said she had spent the first weekends of July reviewing documents on Japan’s basic policies, growth strategy and regional future strategy, as her government prepared to engage in the early stages of the next fiscal year’s budget process. She also described preparing for questioning in the Diet, Japan’s parliament, and working through thousands of delayed emails until dawn.

Her holiday afternoon, she said, was spent ironing neglected laundry and sewing repairs. The task had become pressing enough that she was running short of underlayers to wear with her suits.

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Japan’s prime minister says a full night’s sleep has become an exception.

Sanae Takaichi, in an unusually candid post on X, described working through weekends on budget and growth-policy documents, then returning from official duties to the domestic routines that still awaited her: cleaning the bath, dinner, washing up, laundry and light tidying.

“Zero-to-three hours” of sleep had become normal since taking office, she wrote. A five-hour rest on Marine Day, a national holiday, felt like a luxury.

7月に入ってからの土日は、公邸で『骨太方針』『日本成長戦略』『地域未来戦略』に関する分厚い資料を早朝から深夜まで読み続け、2週目は与党審査で加筆修正された部分を熟読検討するなど、高市内閣が初めて骨太方針や概算要求段階から関われる令和９年度予算や本格的に取り組める中長期の成長戦略に向…

— 高市早苗 (@takaichi_sanae) July 20, 2026

The disclosure is striking not for a new policy announcement but for its plainness. Leaders routinely invoke long hours; few describe, in public, the backlog of handkerchiefs and undergarments, loose jacket buttons and frayed skirt hems that accumulate while governing a country.

Takaichi wrote, “Today’s holiday felt like such a true blessing—finally getting a full five hours of sleep for the first time in ages (ever since taking office as prime minister, zero-to-three hours has been the norm), and then this afternoon, I tackled a huge backlog all at once: ironing the handkerchiefs and undergarments from untouched loads of laundry, plus some sewing (hemming frayed skirt edges and reinforcing loose buttons on jackets).”

She said she had spent the first weekends of July reviewing documents on Japan’s basic policies, growth strategy and regional future strategy, as her government prepared to engage in the early stages of the next fiscal year’s budget process. She also described preparing for questioning in the Diet, Japan’s parliament, and working through thousands of delayed emails until dawn.

Her holiday afternoon, she said, was spent ironing neglected laundry and sewing repairs. The task had become pressing enough that she was running short of underlayers to wear with her suits.