Overview
- The prime minister took up lodging this week in the stone-and-brick residence adjoining her office in central Tokyo, more than two months after taking office.
- The building, inaugurated in 1929 and renovated in 2005, draws design inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright’s former Imperial Hotel.
- The site was the scene of two coup attempts in the 1930s in which several senior officials, including a prime minister, were assassinated, giving rise to long-running ghost stories reported in Japanese media.
- Former leaders Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga chose not to live there, while Shigeru Ishiba and Fumio Kishida stayed and said they saw nothing unusual.
- Takaichi has pledged to “work, work and work,” later saying she sleeps only two to four hours a night.