https://archive.is/ako9d

Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is known as an inveterate workhorse. She often skips social gatherings and has openly rejected the idea of work-life balance. But even by Ms. Takaichi’s standards, it was surprising when she emerged from her Tokyo residence shortly after 3 a.m. on a recent day to convene a meeting with aides ahead of an appearance before Parliament. Ms. Takaichi has drawn criticism for holding the meeting, which took place on Friday and has become known in the Japanese news media as the “3 a.m. study session.” The issue is especially sensitive in Japan, where there have been high-profile cases in recent years of karoshi, or “death from overwork.”

Some argue that the meeting, which involved several aides and lasted about three hours, would feed into unhealthy extremes. Others said that Ms. Takaichi was placing unnecessary burdens on her staff. Yoshihiko Noda, a former prime minister who leads the main opposition party, called Ms. Takaichi’s decision to hold the meeting “crazy.” When he was Japan’s leader from 2011 to 2012, he would start work around 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. “It’s fine for her to work, but she should not be getting other people involved,” he said in an interview. “Everyone is in bed at that time of day. It’s a very sad attitude for the top leader of the country to show.”

  • musicpostingonly [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    29·
    2 days ago

    jfc I thought my boss was a prick for making me get out of bed at five am. new PM is decidedly worse.

    does anyone know what the meeting with parliament was about that PM felt necessitated this nonsense?

    • Lemmygradwontallowme [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      30·
      2 days ago

      Ms. Takaichi, who took office last month as Japan’s prime minister — the first woman to serve in that role — has sought to clarify the circumstances of the meeting. She has said that her fax machine at home was jammed (faxes are still a mainstay of communication in Japan). She decided to go to the prime minister’s residence — she has not yet moved in — so that she could review briefing materials there ahead of a 9 a.m. budget meeting at the Diet, Japan’s Parliament.

      Ms. Takaichi, speaking to Parliament on Friday, acknowledged that her early-morning preparation had “caused inconvenience” to her staff. But she said it was necessary to meet so early to rewrite drafts of answers for lawmakers on a variety of issues.

      agony-shivering Over a feckin’ fax machine, and now those briefing materials.

      • mendiCAN [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        7·
        1 day ago

        huh, faxes? got me curious and:

        The first commercial fax machines appeared in Japan in the 1970s and quickly spread across homes and offices in the 1980s. They became a staple in Japanese communication, especially in small businesses. Part of the reason for their popularity was the complexity of written Japanese, which made handwritten or printed documents preferable to early digital text formats that couldn’t handle kanji well.

        according to the source, 90% of government offices still require faxed documents, interesting.

        i dunno the veracity tho, as the article goes into other reasons but speaks to less concrete things like “tradition” and “rigidity” and felt a bit orientalist… anyway i think the hypothesis that technological limits of the day against the complexity of kanji is an interesting reason of their adoption to think on.

        source