Longer vacations, longer in power? Japan's Takaichi forgoes summer break

As Japan enters its summer holiday season around the Obon period (mid-August), a Japanese newspaper has analyzed the relationship between how long past prime ministers took for their summer vacations and how long they stayed in power.

The Tokyo Shimbun reported Wednesday that a review of past prime ministers' summer vacation lengths found a correlation between longer breaks and longer tenures.

Prime ministers who had the luxury of time often took extended vacations, playing golf or reading at summer retreats. The summer break period also served as a time to deliberate on personnel decisions, including Cabinet reshuffles, ahead of the autumn extraordinary session of the National Diet.

During his second term, Abe took roughly 10-day summer vacations each August from 2013 to 2015. In 2016, he took an especially long 17-day break, spending time at his villa in Yamanashi Prefecture — playing golf, hosting barbecue parties and inviting close aides and business figures.

After returning to power in December 2012, Abe served as prime minister until August 2020, making him the longest-serving prime minister since the Meiji era when his first term is included.

Junichiro Koizumi, who held power from April 2001 to September 2006, was also known for taking roughly two-week summer vacations. In 2001, he was photographed playing catch with his second son, Shinjiro — now defense minister — at the resort town of Hakone.

By contrast, former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who served from Oct. 1, 2024, to Oct. 21, 2025, took only two days off — Aug. 13 and 14 last year — as his summer vacation. Calls for his resignation had already spread following a defeat in upper house elections before his break, and he announced his intention to step down on Sept. 7, shortly after returning.

Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who served for about a year from September 2020, was so well known for not taking breaks that his Aug. 29, 2021, vacation made news as his first day off in 154 days. Despite insisting he had "almost no vacation but no problem with my condition," he resigned just days later, on Sept. 3.

Short-lived prime ministers from the Democratic Party era — Naoto Kan (June 8, 2010 – Sept. 2, 2011) and Yoshihiko Noda (Sept. 2, 2011 – Dec. 26, 2012) — also took summer vacations of less than a week.

The Tokyo Shimbun cited political commentator Harumi Arima, who said "the work of a prime minister is important, but precisely because of that, if you want to sustain a government for a long time, you must take rest." The paper noted that attention is now turning to how Prime Minister Takaichi — who has emphasized sleep deprivation and a relentlessly busy schedule — will spend the Obon holiday period.

Takaichi posted on her X (formerly Twitter) account last month that "sleeping zero to three hours a night has become routine since taking office," projecting an image of tireless work — but the post drew criticism as an outdated attitude.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Takaichi plans to forgo a summer vacation during the Obon holiday and instead focus on managing the aftermath of a major earthquake in Kumamoto and preparing for the autumn extraordinary legislative session. She had planned to return to her home constituency of Nara Prefecture but canceled those plans and will not travel abroad either.

Commentator Arima said, "Politics is ultimately about results. There is no point in appealing to how hard you are working or pretending to be constantly busy."

Neuropsychiatrist Michihito Sugawara said "when someone in a position of responsibility takes time off, it sends a powerful message to their organization and to society," adding that "as long as a culture remains in which not taking breaks is seen as praiseworthy, there will be no real substance to 'work-style reform.'"