Japan is no stranger to hot summers, but because of climate change, temperatures are being pushed into territory that is extreme even by those standards.
The notably high heat of early July — in what should have been the somewhat cooler tsuyu rainy season — is evidence of that, with temperatures hitting as high as 40 degrees Celsius in the city of Shizuoka. That bodes ill for the rest of the summer, with the Meteorological Agency expecting it to be on par with last year’s scorcher.
Society is having to adapt to this new reality as temperatures trend upward, which they will continue to do — at least until the world stops pumping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And the media needs to change too, shifting the way it approaches and discusses heat in order to better convey the harm and disruption that this weather can cause.
To that end, The Japan Times is initiating "Boiling Point," a special series focused on this year’s scorching summer that will also lay the groundwork for enhanced heat coverage in future years.
As a rich, developed country, Japan is much better placed to handle the extra strain posed by extreme heat. But even so, impacts can already be seen across health, culture, sports and other areas. For example, the country's demographic crisis raises key questions for the medical system, as elderly people are particularly vulnerable to heat stress. And culturally, haiku poets are finding themselves unable to use traditional symbolism, while numerous events have been rescheduled or are facing the possibility.
But Japan isn’t sitting still. From special cooling jackets for outdoors workers to the rolling out of “cooling shelters,” various adaptation measures have already taken shape. We will be tracking these solutions, while offering readers practical tips on how to get through the season.
Engaging teams across the newsroom, the project will cover topics ranging from work and sports to the aging of society, along the way illustrating not only the challenges the heat poses but also the country’s solutions and adaptations to them. Fundamentally our reporting on the issue will seek to empower our readers by aiding their understanding of heat’s causes and consequences and giving them the information they need to better respond.