Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Thursday she only sleeps for between two and four hours every night, while she also faces criticism for encouraging people to overwork.

The revelation about how little she sleeps came after Takaichi raised eyebrows last week by arranging a 3am staff meeting in her office to prepare for a parliamentary session.

“I sleep about two hours now, four hours at the longest. I feel it’s bad for my skin,” she told a legislative committee, where she had been asked about the importance of reducing Japan’s notoriously long work hours.

Japan has long struggled to strike a healthy work-life balance, with many workers facing heavy pressure at the office.

It even has a word— “karoshi” — for people who die from overwork.

Takaichi was also asked to explain her government’s discussions about possibly extending the upper limit on overtime work in order to encourage economic growth.

She defended the discussion, saying that workers and employers have different needs. Some people choose to work two jobs to make ends meet, she said, while businesses impose strict limits on overtime.

Takaichi stressed that any change would ensure that workers’ health would be protected.

“Indeed, if we can create a situation where people can properly balance childcare and caregiving responsibilities according to their wishes, and also being able to work, enjoy leisure time, and relax — that would be ideal,” she said.

Takaichi came to power last month as Japan’s first woman prime minister.

She pledged after her election as the head of the Liberal Democratic Party to “discard the term ‘work-life balance’ for myself. I will work, work, work, work, and work”.

She has since kept a busy calendar, attending regional meetings as well as holding bilateral talks with US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.

• Democrats say messages raise serious questions for Trump.
• Speaker Johnson sets House vote on releasing Epstein files.
• Epstein to Maxwell, Trump spent hours with a victim.

WASHINGTON: Jeffrey Epstein suggested Donald Trump knew about the disgraced financier’s abuse and “spent hours” with one of the victims at his house, according to emails released by Democrats Wednesday that raised awkward new questions for the US president.

Trump has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the sex-trafficking activities of his former friend — who died by suicide in 2019 while in prison awaiting trial — and accused Democrats of trying to “deflect” from their own failings.

But the scandal has proved tough for Trump to shake, and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the three new emails “raise serious questions about Donald Trump and his knowledge of Epstein’s horrific crimes.”

The pressure on Trump grew later Wednesday, when Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would hold a vote next week on a bid to force the Justice Department to release the remaining Epstein files.

In an April 2011 message to longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein asserts Trump spent significant time with a woman whom the White House later identified as Epstein’s main accuser, Virgina Giuffre.

“I want you to realise that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” wrote Epstein. He added that the victim “spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned.”

Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking after Epstein’s death, replied: “I have been thinking about that…”

‘Of course he knew’

In another email to the author Michael Wolff, dated January 31, 2019, Epstein allegedly wrote: “of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

Republicans later released a trove of thousands of emails, obtained after Democrats subpoenaed Epstein’s estate earlier this year, including one in which Epstein called Trump “dirty.”

The Epstein furore is still roiling Trump’s administration more than four months after his Justice Department sought to close the case.

Keen to capitalise on the simmering controversy, Democrats in the House have been trying to force a vote that would compel publication of the full Epstein case files.

Trump urged Republicans not to fall into a “trap,” and top officials hosted hard-right Republican Lauren Boebert in the White House Situation Room to push her to keep her name off the petition.

“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done,” Trump said on Truth Social.

But Boebert refused to back down, and the petition passed when Democratic congresswoman Adelita Grijalva was sworn in after weeks of delay and immediately signed the petition.

Johnson said the House vote on the files would take place next week, earlier than expected, as Republicans try to put the issue behind them.

MAGA base furious

The White House went into fightback mode, accusing Democrats of selectively leaking the messages to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Virginia Giuffre, who herself died by suicide in April, had declared that Trump “‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions.”

The Epstein scandal has dogged Trump for months, after his Justice Department, in a July memo, reaffirmed he died by suicide, and that a “client list” Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed to have been reviewing did not in fact exist.

It sparked a furious backlash from Trump’s “MAGA” support base, who felt betrayed after being told for years that a “deep state” cover-up was protecting figures in the Democratic Party whom they accused of being Epstein’s clients.

Trump’s MAGA lieutenants — including two allies who now run the FBI — made careers of fanning the conspiracy theories, including that Epstein’s suicide was actually a murder ordered by his powerful clients.

Trump’s ties to Epstein are extensive. The pair were pictured partying together during a 15-year friendship before they reportedly fell out in 2004 over a property deal, and when Trump subsequently denounced his former ally.

WASHINGTON: Internet freedom declined in both the United States and Germany as Western democracies joined authoritarian states in imposing growing restrictions online, an annual survey by Freedom House said Thursday.

The Washington-based democracy promotion research group said global internet freedom fell for the 15th straight year, with declines in a number of countries that remain classified as “free”.

“We find worsening repression in authoritarian and authoritarian-leaning states, largely because governments in those countries see restrictions on the internet and online expression as a means of maintaining power,” said Kian Vesteinsson, the report’s co-author.

“Much more specific to 2025, we’ve seen conditions in democracies declining,” he told AFP.

“Unfortunately we see across North America and Western Europe generally a trend towards closing civic space in some countries, and in others deepening restrictions on people posting hateful or problematic content,” he said.

The US scored 73 on a scale of 100 on internet freedom in the year through May 2025 covered by the report, its lowest-ever figure and down three points from the previous year.

The report pointed in part to the detention by President Donald Trump’s administration of a number of non-US citizens over their online expression.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to deport people over statements on Israel, decisions challenged in courts.

Germany also saw a decline of three points to 74. Freedom House said that Germany was seeing growing self-censorship and also the zealous enforcement of laws that prohibit hate speech and defamation.

It pointed to a suspended jail sentence and fine imposed on the editor of a far-right website over a social media post that included a manipulated image to criticise a politician.

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticised the free speech record of Germany, which says its Nazi past makes it critical to impose safeguards.

The most severe declines in the report were registered by Kenya, which briefly shut down the internet in response to nationwide protests, as well as Venezuela and Georgia.

Two countries were downgraded — Serbia was classified as “partly free” instead of “free” and Nicaragua was marked as “not free” instead of “partially free”.

Bangladesh saw the biggest gain, as a new government formed after a student revolt loosened restrictions in the country.

Freedom House, founded during World War II to promote democracy, was historically funded largely by the US government but operated independently.

Trump on returning to office slashed funding to rights groups including Freedom House, which has laid off staff.