赫海威, HISAKO UENO2025年11月12日日本首相高市早苗周三出席东京预算委员会会议。 Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJapan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is known as an inveterate workhorse. She often skips social gatherings and has openly rejected the idea of work-life balance.日本新首相高市早苗是出了名的工作狂。她经常缺席社交聚会，还公开否定工作与生活平衡的理念。But even by Ms. Takaichi’s standards, it was surprising when she emerged from her Tokyo residence shortly after 3 a.m. on a recent day to convene a meeting with aides ahead of an appearance before Parliament.但即便以高市早苗的标准来看，近日那次凌晨3点刚过就走出东京住所，召集幕僚开会为国会质询做准备的举动，仍令人感到意外。Ms. Takaichi has drawn criticism for holding the meeting, which took place on Friday and has become known in the Japanese news media as the “3 a.m. study session.” The issue is especially sensitive in Japan, where there have been high-profile cases in recent years of karoshi, or “death from overwork.”这场周五举行的会议被日本媒体称为“凌晨3点研习会”，它招致外界的批评。该问题在日本尤为敏感——近年来，日本发生过多起备受关注的“过劳死”案例。Some argue that the meeting, which involved several aides and lasted about three hours, would feed into unhealthy extremes. Others said that Ms. Takaichi was placing unnecessary burdens on her staff.有人认为，这场多名幕僚参与、持续约三小时的会议会助长不健康的极端工作风气。也有人表示，高市早苗给下属施加了不必要的负担。Yoshihiko Noda, a former prime minister who leads the main opposition party, called Ms. Takaichi’s decision to hold the meeting “crazy.” When he was Japan’s leader from 2011 to 2012, he would start work around 6 a.m. or 7 a.m.日本主要反对党领袖、前首相野田佳彦称高市早苗召开此次会议的决定“荒唐”。他在2011年至2012年担任日本首相期间，通常于早上6点或7点开始工作。“It’s fine for her to work, but she should not be getting other people involved,” he said in an interview. “Everyone is in bed at that time of day. It’s a very sad attitude for the top leader of the country to show.”“她自己工作无妨，但不该把别人也牵扯进来，”他在接受采访时说。“那个时间大家都在睡觉，国家最高领导人表现出这种态度，实在可悲。”Ms. Takaichi, who took office last month as Japan’s prime minister — the first woman to serve in that role — has sought to clarify the circumstances of the meeting. She has said that her fax machine at home was jammed (faxes are still a mainstay of communication in Japan). She decided to go to the prime minister’s residence — she has not yet moved in — so that she could review briefing materials there ahead of a 9 a.m. budget meeting at the Diet, Japan’s Parliament.上月就职的高市早苗是日本首位女性首相，她试图澄清会议的相关情况。她表示，自己家中的传真机出了故障（传真在日本仍是主要沟通方式之一），于是决定前往首相官邸（她尚未正式入住）审阅简报材料，以便为上午9点在日本国会举行的预算会议做准备。Ms. Takaichi, speaking to Parliament on Friday, acknowledged that her early-morning preparation had “caused inconvenience” to her staff. But she said it was necessary to meet so early to rewrite drafts of answers for lawmakers on a variety of issues.高市早苗周五在国会承认，自己凌晨的准备工作“给工作人员带来了不便”，但她表示，为修改针对各类议题的议员质询答复草稿，这么早开会是必要的。Ms. Takaichi’s supporters have defended her. Some in her party, the Liberal Democratic Party, have blamed opposition lawmakers for submitting questions too late.高市早苗的支持者则为她辩护。她所属的自民党曾有部分人士指责反对党议员提交质询问题时间过晚。“Even a workaholic like Prime Minister Takaichi wouldn’t want to be at work at 3 a.m.,” Midori Matsushima, an L.D.P. lawmaker, wrote on X.“就算是高市首相这样的工作狂，也不会想凌晨3点工作，”自民党议员松岛绿在X平台上写道。高市早苗周五在国会发言时承认，她清晨的准备工作给工作人员“造成了不便”。Some business leaders also have spoken in support of Ms. Takaichi, saying they do not understand the fuss over her work habits.一些商界领袖也发声支持高市早苗，声称不理解为何外界对她的工作习惯小题大做。Kenji Koshio, chief executive of Shindenki, a small electronics company in the city of Kobe, wrote on his blog that troops, police officers, firefighters and medical workers were expected to work around the clock. Why not Japan’s prime minister?神户市小型电子企业Shindenki的社长越生健二（音）在博客中写道，军人、警察、消防员和医护人员都需要24小时待命，日本首相为何不可？Responding to the uproar over the meeting, he wrote: “Why don’t you just stop being so lame and be grateful to the people who are working hard for the people of Japan?”针对会议引发的轩然大波，他写道：“别这么无聊了，对为日本民众努力工作的人心怀感激不好吗？”The controversy comes as Japan considers relaxing the upper limits on overtime, an idea that Ms. Takaichi recently endorsed. The current limit of 45 hours of overtime per month was put in place in 2019 after the death of Matsuri Takahashi, an employee of Dentsu, the advertising giant, who died by suicide in 2016 after clocking more than 100 hours of overtime per month.此次争议发生之际，日本正考虑放宽加班上限，这项提议近日获得了高市早苗的支持。目前每月45小时的加班上限于2019年设立，起因是广告巨头电通的员工高桥茉莉2016年因每月加班超100小时而自杀身亡。Ms. Takaichi has supported allowing people to work more overtime, saying it is an important source of income. But she has also said that it should not come at the expense of the well-being of Japan’s workers.高市早苗支持允许民众增加加班时间，称这是重要的收入来源，但她也表示，不应以牺牲日本劳动者的健康为代价。“I do not approve of overtime that leads to death from overwork,” Ms. Takaichi said at another appearance in Parliament this month. “I am concerned that a reduction in overtime pay will lead to people damaging their health by taking on unfamiliar side jobs in order to earn a living.”“我不赞成会导致过劳死的加班，”高市早苗本月在国会另一次发言中表示。“我担心加班工资减少后，人们为了谋生会从事不熟悉的副业，进而损害健康。”Since entering politics in the 1990s, Ms. Takaichi has made her work ethic a part of her identity. She promised during her recent campaign to scrap her work-life balance upon taking office, saying she would “work and work and work and work.”自上世纪90年代步入政坛以来，高市早苗就将敬业作为个人标签。在近期的竞选活动中，她承诺上任后会摒弃工作与生活的平衡，称自己会“工作、工作、工作、再工作”。Her comments were criticized by relatives of people who have died from overwork in Japan, who said she has set a bad example.她的这番言论遭到了日本过劳死者家属的批评，他们表示高市早苗树立了坏榜样。Since being named prime minister only about three weeks ago, Ms. Takaichi has had an unusually packed schedule. She recently hosted a visit to Japan by President Trump, and she attended meetings in Malaysia and South Korea.自约三周前被任命为首相以来，高市早苗始终保持着异常紧凑的行程。她近期接待了来访的特朗普总统，还出席了在马来西亚和韩国举行的会议。Shigeaki Koga, a former economic official, said in an interview that he could sympathize with Ms. Takaichi’s frenetic first few weeks in office. But he said she should stick to her predecessors’ practice of holding meetings only after 7 a.m. or 8 a.m.前经济官员古贺茂明在接受采访时表示，他能理解高市早苗上任初期几周的忙碌，但他认为她应该沿用前任的做法，将会议时间安排在早上7点或8点之后。“Three o’clock in the morning is way too early,” he said, “no matter what.”“凌晨3点实在太早了，”他强调，“无论出于什么原因。”Mr. Koga noted that it was probably impossible for any modern leader to get adequate rest, but he said it was important not to place burdens on staff.古贺茂明指出，现代领导人或许很难获得充足的休息，但重要的是不要给工作人员增添负担。“The prime minister can’t relax,” he said. “But the best thing is to work hard in secret.”“首相确实无法放松，”他说。“但最好的方式是默默努力。”赫海威(Javier C. Hernández)是《纽约时报》东京分社社长，领导时报对日本及周边地区的报道。在过去十年的大部分时间里，他一直在亚洲进行报道，此前曾任驻华记者。Hisako Ueno是常驻东京的记者/研究员，撰写日本政治、商业、劳工、性别及文化相关议题。翻译：晋其角点击查看本文英文版。