5 dead, more than 1,500 taken to hospitals as heat wave covers Japan

Yet, people still continue to rush around as if temperatures were in the twenties and not in the thirties.

Schools will still have kids running around for baseball practice and falling unconscious as they do year on year.

Basically, it’s the same tune every year here.....

My husband was down giving a speech in Akarenga in Yokohama yesterday so the kid and I drove down there with him. We only walked around about 15 minutes along the bay before we gave up and had to go into some restaurant and just sit and wait. It was unbelievably hot and yet still the little mall there was completely packed with people. I really hate this season.

go grab IOC Coates and take a few tours of area hospitals, then take him aside and state the games must be held in October

i recently came back from Singapore and Malaysia, near the Equator. While those places were really hot, we had most meals outdoors comfortably and were able to stroll around the streets for a couple of hours at a stretch in the day. Can't do that in Tokyo. My 7 minute walk to the train station leaves me drenched in sweat.

Japan has got to be one of the world's most humid-hot places. Can't wait for the 2020 SUMMER Olympics. LOL.

Basically, it’s the same tune every year here.....

And, every year, they don't start the AC/heat in public spaces/businesses, or change seasonal clothing, until specific dates, regardless of actual temperatures.

Saw an older guy the other day hiking in a fleece. I was wearing a t-shirt and I was sweating. Don't know what was going on in his mind. People need to be smarter. Specially those Japanese teachers in sports days wearing long jersey pants, jersey jacket, hat and covering the only one part the body has left the breath, the neck, with a towel.

Stay hydrated, use sunscreen and don't wrap yourself in layers to escape the sun rays.

@JeffLee i recently came back from Singapore and Malaysia

I agree. I've made trips from Japan to both those plus other hot places during summertime and found Japan to be the most uncomfortable when the temperature goes above 30. One problem is the lack of open space in Japanese cities compared to cities like Singapore. 

There are so many things Japanese cities can do to reduce temperatures in cities, or at least keep them from getting worse, but for whatever reason little if anything seems to ever be done about it. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-cities-can-beat-the-heat/

Too bad the green movement isn't stronger here.

Just wondering if channeling rivers into populated areas might add some coolness to those areas? Sort of like small, artificial creeks, streams, etc.

Like what they have at Gujo Hachiman, also known as the Water City.

Might also be useful as fire-stops in case of earthquake induced fires or a ready sort of fire-extinguishers in case of fire.

*source

ready *source of fire-extinguishers

I work out hard, eat well, and go to a finnish sauna year round. I can’t be scientifically sure on this, but I think that the years of cycling in the sun and using saunas kinda make you toughened to the heat and it won’t seem so bad.

I’m still gunna go running tomorrow here in Osaka, and hopefully when everyones puffing and ready for their nap at work, I’ll be up and down for more hustlin!

Stay safe everyone.

everyone please take note I thought I was a picture of health a former champ gymnast non smoker non meat pork or fried food eater, no soft drinks cigarettes hard liquor or drugs - a few years ago in this same weather high temp & humidity woke up one morning completely numb and learned I had a stroke - stay hydrated and out of the sun.

Wow!

Thats is very pertinent advice...

RIP to the victims.

Victim blaming is very low. Such misfortune could happen to any one of us here in Japan.

The final three weeks of semester for students and teachers in the warmer parts of the country (ie where most of the people are), is nothing short of an endurance test. Enlightened Korea however allows its universities to finish first semester over three weeks ago, avoiding the worst of this motivation sapping heat.

Just spent the day at the beach. Water was actually cold. In AC comfort or near water of some kind is the only way to roll at this time of year.

The heat is unbearable, yet today we saw kids playing a football match in the blazing heat, idiot joggers running in the midday sun and kids running around with bare arms and legs and no hat. They are telling people. especially the old, to stay indoors for the hottest parts of the day, yet the shops don't open until 9 or ten, by then it's boiling. Why don't they open at earlier during the summer, why not 7am? I went out on my bike at 9am yesterday to go to the shops, it was already 29C.

Swam 3 times today and slept 5 hours. Now I have to do my job. Just one more swim.

Yes, it's hot. As it is every summer. Been watching the news with the daytime highs from around Japan, along with the obligatory interviews with foreign tourists in Kyoto. "暑いですか?" "Yes, Japan is hot." Kids made to play baseball in the exterme heat, volunteers dressed like Darth Vader, people who think it's a good idea to go running without adequate hydration. Nothing that common sense won't solve. I walked about 8 kilometers today and had no problem.