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It’s a ‘sontaku’ world – we are just living in it
Pre-emptive interpretation of a leader’s wishes can be dangerous and reveals a vacuum where direction should be.
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Sontaku applies not just to Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi's (left) style of leadership but also describes the administration of British PM Keir Starmer (centre) and US President Donald Trump, says the writer.
PHOTOS: EPA, BLOOMBERG
Leo Lewis
A mere six months into the premiership of Ms Sanae Takaichi, Japanese officials are starting to mutter the word “sontaku”. And in a revealingly exasperated way. It is a word that everyone, everywhere, should consider adopting.
The term itself, with a narrow meaning of “conjecture”, has been around forever. Newer, though, is its deployment in both political and corporate contexts to refer to the room-reading, anticipatory and placatory following of an order that has not been given.
