Japan PM’s pledge to ‘work, work, work, work, and work’ wins catchphrase of year | Sanae Takaichi
This is perhaps not a word many people in Japan wanted to hear as they prepared for the World War. bonekai office party season and a well-deserved day off during the new year.
But the promise of Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, that he would “work, work, work, work and work” on behalf of his country clearly aroused interest.
The oath he took just before he took office in October was named Japan’s slogan of the year, beating out more than two dozen other candidates.
Takaichi faced criticism after begging Liberal Democratic party (LDP) MPs to follow him. “I will make everyone work like a horse,” he said, adding that he would give up the concept of work-life balance in his own life.
In a country notorious for long working hours, where lawyers represent people dying from the disease, his words did not go down well. karoshi – death due to overwork – stated that these were useless.
Some expressed concerns about Takaichi’s health after he told parliament he was sleeping two to four hours a night, following reports that he had summoned officials to a meeting at his home at 3 a.m.
Accepting his award this week, Takaichi said his comments were misinterpreted. “It was not my intention to encourage people to work overtime or to suggest that working long hours is a virtue,” he said, adding that he was simply trying to convey his determination to be an effective leader.
Organizers of the annual award said the shortlist also included other phrases that best captured Japan’s 2025 spirit: “First female prime minister” was the second most popular; others included “Trump’s tariffs,” “bear damage,” and “old, old, old rice”; This was a reference to the release of stockpiled grain from the 2021 crop in an attempt to rein in rising prices.
A committee selects the winning statement from the top 10 shortlists from the publisher’s tentative list of Japan’s Yearbook of Contemporary Society.
Takaichi became the fourth politician to receive the award. The last one, Yukio Hatoyama, won in 2009 for a “change of government” after his party unseated the LDP for only the second time since the mid-1950s.
On Monday, Takaichi’s choice of language attracted attention when he told an economic forum organized by the Saudis to “shut up”; not out of rudeness, but by saying a line from a well-known manga comic.
He said at the event: “I understand that Japanese manga and anime are extremely popular in Saudi Arabia. Names like Captain Tsubasa, One Piece and Demon Slayer come to mind.” “But to finish my speech today, I want to borrow a famous line from Attack on Titan. ‘Just shut up. And bet everything on me!'” he said.
Takaichi was speaking at the FII Priority Asia 2025 conference, a spin-off of the annual Future Investment Initiative called “Davos in the Desert”, held in Saudi Arabia.
Takaichi is under pressure to attract investment to support the world’s fourth-largest economy, which shrank in the third quarter.
With Agence France-Presse
