Taking after her “extremely good friend” Mr Trump and communicating directly with the public via social media, Ms Takaichi said: “I’ve written about the official residence, so I’ll also answer some of the questions I often get.
“‘Have you already met the ghosts that are said to appear in the official residence?’
“I’ve never encountered a ghost, but until recently I was the one screaming when I came across cockroaches.
“Even after moving to the official residence, I carefully wiped down the floor under the dining table, put food scraps in a sturdy lidded garbage can, and washed and sorted plastic containers, so I was shocked when, one day, a cockroach suddenly scurried past my feet.
“But I’ve loved Osamu Tezuka’s Firebird [manga comic book series] since I was a child and have read it over and over many times.
“Firebird depicts the idea of reincarnation, that ‘life is connected, changing forms’, and it had a huge impact on me even as a child.
“Maybe because of that, even now as an adult, I can’t bring myself to kill insects, cockroaches included.
“For the cockroach that ran through the official residence, I thought things like, ‘maybe this life is also part of that long cycle of reincarnation,’ and for a while, I endured it, hoping it would somehow leave on its own – but when I told my secretaries about it, they were appalled.
‘It’s unclean. I’ll handle it,’ one of the secretaries said firmly, and arranged for Operation Combat. After that, the cockroaches stopped appearing. I felt relieved, but also a little lonely, or maybe sad.”