Six dead in Tokyo as Japan suffers heatwave July 9, 2024

A person walks on the street, protecting himself from the sun with an umbrella and using a hand fan in the late afternoon of July 5, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. Japan's capital is being hit by an intense heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius in Tokyo. Photo: Anadolu/Getty Images

By AFP -Agence France Presse

Six dead in Tokyo as Japan suffers heatwave

By Tomohiro OSAKI

July 9, 2024

Six people have died of heatstroke in Tokyo as Japan sinks into a rare rainy season heatwave, prompting authorities to issue a series of health alerts.

Over the weekend, the central region of Shizuoka became the first in Japan to see the mercury hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) this year, far exceeding the 35-degree limit classified by meteorological authorities as "extremely hot".

Such strong heat in the middle of Japan's rainy season is "quite rare", caused in part by a strong high-pressure system from the South Pacific, a weather agency official told AFP.

Temperatures also hit record highs close to 40 degrees Celsius on Monday at observation posts in Tokyo and the southern region of Wakayama, according to local media.

In recent days, authorities have issued heatstroke warnings across much of the country, urging residents to avoid exercising outdoors and to use air conditioning.

The capital recorded three heatstroke-related deaths on Saturday and three more on Monday, when the mercury hovered around 35 degrees Celsius at midday, according to the city's medical examination office.

"Without the air conditioning on, I find it hard to survive," Tokyo resident Sumiko Yamamoto, 75, told AFP, adding that she feels it has "gotten drastically hotter" since last year.

"With the advice given on TV, I try to stay hydrated as much as possible. As I'm elderly, I'm taking care not to collapse," she said.

Heatstroke is particularly deadly in Japan, which has the second oldest population in the world after Monaco.

Yamamoto's age puts her in the demographic group singled out by health experts as particularly vulnerable to heatstroke, along with babies and people who live alone or are too poor to afford air conditioning.

The Japanese Association of Acute Medicine warned on Monday about the rising number of heat exhaustion deaths across the country, which has grown from just a few hundred a year two decades ago to around 1,500 by 2022.

The high number of fatalities suggests that heatstroke now poses a danger equivalent to that of "a major natural disaster", the group said, warning against non-essential outings.

Tokyo business executive Mikio Nakahara, 67, says the difference between Tokyo 50 years ago and now is stark.

"Tokyo wasn't as hot as it is now," he told AFP.

But these days, "I try to work remotely as much as possible so I don't have to leave the house".

With increasingly hot summers becoming the norm around the world, tourists like Ainhoa Sanchez, 29, aren't too surprised by Tokyo's temperatures.

"So the plan is to do a bit of sightseeing. Drink lots of fluids. Maybe, when we get too hot, we can go into a store, have a look around, relax a bit, and then go back out onto the street," she told AFP.

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