Since taking office as Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi has been open about her rheumatoid arthritis and is often seen wearing a black glove on her right hand to help ease the pain.
The background of the nation’s 65-year-old leader is reflected in this year’s government blueprint of measures to support women, her administration’s first.
Support for women’s health through different life stages forms one of the main pillars of the joseiban honebuto no hōshin (literally meaning the women’s version of the big-boned policy). The policy includes a pledge for greater support for people with rheumatoid arthritis, which disproportionately affects women during menopause.
