Advertisement
Japan
This Week in AsiaHealth & Environment

Japan feels the heat as temperatures set to soar again this summer

  • With more frequent extreme weather, hotter and drier conditions will have an ever greater impact on life in Japan, climate experts say
  • Elderly Japanese are at highest risk from the elevated temperatures, while industries from agriculture to fishing are also expected to feel the impact

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
1
Women use portable fans to cool off while walking around Tokyo last summer. Photo: AFP
Julian Ryall
Temperatures across much of Japan soared to unseasonably high levels over the weekend, with the country’s meteorological agency warning of another scorching summer.
Advertisement
As extreme weather becomes more frequent, environmental experts say hotter and drier conditions threaten a range of sectors, from agriculture to fishing, with knock-on effects for human health and worsening habitat destruction.
“Japan has a rapidly ageing population, and it is this sector of society that will be hardest hit by high temperatures and humidity,” said Rajib Shaw, a professor at Keio University’s graduate school of media and governance who specialises in climate change adaptation.

“To already see 27 degrees (80.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in April is very worrying, and there will certainly be an impact on human health.”

Thermometers in central Tokyo touched a high of 26.1 degrees Celsius on Saturday afternoon, a temperature typically not seen in the city until mid-June. Several other cities across Japan similarly recorded unusually warm conditions for the time of year, with Sano in Tochigi prefecture, just north of Tokyo, the hottest at 27.9 degrees.

Advertisement

The Japan Meteorological Agency has blamed the elevated temperatures on a high-pressure system moving over the main island of Honshu, with Isesaki in Gunma prefecture, central Japan, reporting a maximum temperature of 27.1 degrees and the city of Funabashi, east of Tokyo, experiencing 26.6 degrees. It will be even hotter over the summer, the agency said.

Advertisement