About a month into her tenure as the prime minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi called a 3am meeting to get ready for a committee meeting later that day. Apparently, that’s not out of the ordinary as she reports sleeping between two to four hours a night.
Public reaction in Japan and around the world like an article The Guardian (McCurry, 2025) had CBC calling to seek a Canadian point of view. It was also an opportunity to talk about generational views on work-life “balance”, or what I prefer to call it “work-life integration”. This led to sixteen radio interviews across the country, something I’ve been privileged to do over the past few years on topics around productivity, remote work, and work-life integration.
Unfortunately, none of the interviews were put online so I thought I’d share a summary of the conversation:
1. What do we think about 3 am meetings?
Having lived and worked in Tokyo from late 1997 through mid 2001, I gained an appreciation of the culture and importance of work. Traditionally, companies offered lifetime work and in return expect great commitment. This often took the form of long hours and included afterwork socializing with colleagues. Work and identity are interwoven, with sometimes dire consequences.
Karoshi, a Japanese term for death from overwork, gained broader recognition in 2013 as the number of deaths grew dramatically. Rates declined through 2019, but then increased again through the pandemic, with a notable increase in the percentage of women being affected.
Unhealthy work wasn’t just happening in Japan. Pulling “all-nighters” was a regular practice here in Canada back in the early 90s when I worked at Nortel. We wore them like badges of honour.
Overwork is now considered a global issue with the World Health Organization (WHO) revealing that in 2021, it led to 750,000 deaths around the world. (Al-Madhagi H. A., 2023).
While Prime Minister Sanae Takichi may choose to make decisions that are detrimental to her own health and well-being, it is at minimum risky, and at its worst a misuse of power to force people to make similar choices. It is also not inclusive. I was immediately curious about the expectation to have child care arrangements for 3 am, and if staff are expected to continue to put in a full day or invited to rest and recover.
2. Has our relationship to work-life integration changed since 2020?
Being given autonomy to work from home enabled people to redesign how work and life fit together. The commute was traded for more sleep, better exercise, richer relationships, with some time put back into work.
For some, it proved a difficult mix to live and work from the same place but overwhelmingly it is something that working mothers value. A poll of 1500 professionals in Canada revealed some similarities and differences for moms and dads (Levick, 2025):
- 79% of working fathers and 74% of working moms choose hybrid as their ideal work arrangement.
- 20% of working dads versus only 11% of working mothers would choose to be fully on-site.Once you’ve seen a more successful way of living and working, you can’t unsee it.
3. Do our preferences vary by generation?
Not as much as you’d think.
Research such as Deloitte’s Gen Z and Millenial Survey (2023) show that young people “make lifestyle and career decisions based on their values.” Flexibility is a high priority.
I’ve long thought that I was born in the wrong generation as I have been vocal about what I believed in throughout my career. When negotiating a new job in 1995 and declining to accept only two weeks of vacation when I’d already been enjoying three, I was told, “nobody turns down a job because of the vacation”. Well, I would have.
I didn’t hear much conversation about flexible work in 2002 when I lobbied my Chief Operating Officer to consider reduced and flexible workweeks for the working moms I witnessed who seemed to be treading water. Similarly, when I pitched a story about being denied flexibility in 2007 by a company selling the tech that enabled people to work remotely, I was told it wasn’t a story.
Today, flexibility is very much a story. Though the younger generation has the reputation for making choices in support of their values, research shows us that preferences regarding the office are more similar than you might imagine. Research from Nigel Oseland at WorkUnlimited and Ryan Anderson (you might remember him from episode 37 of the Happy Space Podcast about “Exploring Respite, Place Attachment & Hotelling (Kumar, 2024) and his colleagues at MillerKnoll reveals that the percentage of people who prefer the office along twenty different parameters including work hours, meetings, and connection is quite similar (WorkUnlimited & MillerKnoll, 2023)
4. What strategies can people use to better design the integration of work and life?
The broadest answer includes knowing what’s important to you personally and professionally. Using the “Productivity CPR™” methodology, that’s, determining your “Compass” (C). It’s also requires knowing what you need to maintain well-being, which I referred to as “Performance”. Through talking with many clients and fellow entrepreneurs over the years, I realized that not everyone can clearly articulate the conditions that invite their best work.
That is why I created the Happy Space Work Style Profile™, a questionnaire to help articulate what sets you up for success so that you can share it with colleagues. If everyone on a team shares their profile, and even better, if the team has a conversation about what helps each person thrive, you’ll be on your way to co-creating the “how” of work through compassion-infused compromise. Once we see each other as human beings trying to do our best and sometimes being thwarted by the conditions within which we operate, we have a chance to meet each others’ needs.
It’s free, and if you haven’t completed yours yet, go ahead and click this link.
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Sources:
Al-Madhagi H. A. (2023). Unveiling the Global Surge: Unraveling the Factors Fueling the Spread of Karoshi Syndrome. Risk management and healthcare policy, 16, 2779–2782. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S444900
McCurry, J. (2025). Two hours a night: Japan PM’s sleep schedule prompts concerns about work-life balance. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/14/japan-pm-two-hours-sleep-schedule-sanae-takaichi
Levick, J. (September 4, 2025). Back to school, back to offices: Data reveals how working parents are feeling about flexible. Personal Communication, Robert Half.
Deloitte (2023, May 17). Deloitte’s Gen Z and Millenial Survey reveals workplace progress despite new setbacks. [Press release]. https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/about/press-room/2023-gen-z-and-millenial-survey.html
