Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently opened up about her life while working from her Tokyo residence. While sharing an anecdote about cockroaches in her residence, she opened up about feeling “relieved but a little lonely” after the pests were removed.
What did the PM write?
A translated X post by the Japanese leader reads:
I’ve written about the official residence, so I’ll also answer some of the questions I often get.
“Have you already met the ghosts that are said to appear in the official residence?”
I’ve never encountered a ghost, but until recently, I was the one screaming when I came across cockroaches.
When I lived in the members’ dormitory, I never had an encounter with cockroaches.
Even after moving to the official residence, I carefully wiped down the floor under the dining table, put food scraps in a sturdy lidded garbage can, and washed and sorted plastic containers, so I was shocked when, one day, a cockroach suddenly scurried past my feet.
But I’ve loved Osamu Tezuka’s *Firebird* since I was a child and have read it over and over many times.
*Firebird* depicts the idea of reincarnation, that “life is connected, changing forms,” and it had a huge impact on me even as a child.
Maybe because of that, even now as an adult, I can’t bring myself to kill insects, cockroaches included.
For the cockroach that ran through the official residence, I thought things like, “Maybe this life is also part of that long cycle of reincarnation,” and for a while, I endured it, hoping it would somehow leave on its own—but when I told my secretaries about it, they were appalled.
“It’s unclean. I’ll handle it,” one of the secretaries said firmly, and arranged for Operation Combat.
After that, the cockroaches stopped appearing.
I felt relieved, but also a little lonely, or maybe sad…
The cockroach complaint coincided with her admission on social media that she has been spending more time working from the official prime ministerial residence than from her actual office. Takaichi is the first female prime minister of Japan.
“I have made it a point to actively utilise the prime minister’s residence, which allows me to minimise the number of staff and security personnel, including special police, who need to be involved,” she wrote on X.
It was previously reported that she gets only a few hours of sleep each day. She is also known for working on weekends.
