Japanese media: Takenaka Sawa has not spoken on the phone with foreign leaders for two months, leading to dissatisfaction.

According to observations from Japanese media, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has apparently not had a phone call with any foreign leaders since June 1, with no public records of such diplomatic communications over the past two months. An analysis report by Nikkei Asia on August 1 indicated that there was a proposal in early July to arrange a phone call between Takaichi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan. Turkey was hosting the NATO summit at the time, and Takaichi was unable to attend due to parliamentary duties. However, the call was ultimately canceled due to scheduling and other factors. Half of Takaichi's calls were concentrated from late March to April when the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran triggered an energy crisis. She communicated with leaders from Middle Eastern and Asian countries to confirm cooperation in ensuring stable energy supply. Since then, her phone diplomacy has significantly decreased, with the last public record of a call being on June 1 with the Iranian president. According to Nikkei Asia's statistics, Takaichi has had 27 phone calls with other national leaders in her 284 days in office, slightly more than former Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Shigeru Ishiba, who made 26 and 24 calls respectively during the same tenure. Japanese media analysts suggest that Takaichi's issue lies not in the frequency of calls, but in the substantive content of those calls. This contrasts with her political mentor Shinzo Abe's approach: during Trump's first term, from Trump's inauguration in 2017 to Abe's resignation in 2020, the two spoke on the phone approximately once a month.