Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi enters her prime minister’s office in Tokyo. (Photo: AP)

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she has not encountered any ghosts at the official residence, but recently found herself unable to kill a cockroach that appeared there. She linked her hesitation to ideas about reincarnation that have stayed with her since childhood.She recounted the episode on X while answering a question she said she often receives about whether she has encountered ghosts at the residence. “I’ve never encountered a ghost, but until recently, I was the one screaming when I came across cockroaches,” she wrote.

‘Firebird’ shaped her response

Takaichi said she has read Osamu Tezuka’s Firebird repeatedly since childhood and that its depiction of reincarnation made a deep impression on her. The idea that “life is connected, changing forms” stayed with her as she grew older.She said that may be why she still cannot bring herself to kill insects, including cockroaches. When one appeared at the official residence, she recalled thinking: “Maybe this life is also part of that long cycle of reincarnation.”Instead of killing it, she left the cockroach alone for a while and hoped it would eventually make its own way out.

Cockroach appeared despite precautions

Her previous accommodation, the members’ dormitory, had never presented the same problem, she said. After moving into the official residence, she took several precautions to keep the place clean.She dealt carefully with food waste, cleaned around the dining area and washed used plastic containers. Even so, she was startled when a cockroach suddenly appeared near her feet.For some time, she kept the problem to herself and waited for the insect to leave. When she eventually told her secretaries what she had been doing, they were appalled.

‘Operation Combat’ ended sightings

“It’s unclean. I’ll handle it,” she quoted one of her secretaries as saying. The secretary then arranged what she called “Operation Combat”.The measures worked, and she said there were no further cockroach sightings. Her reaction, however, was not entirely one of relief: “I felt relieved, but also a little lonely, or maybe sad…” she wrote.