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The Environment Ministry says the pollen season this year is expected to begin this week in Shikoku and Kyushu and peak for much of the country by late February. The ministry said it is relatively earlier than usual as temperatures are forecast to be higher than average for February and early March, TBS reported.
According to the forecast announced by the ministry on Jan 31, the pollen season will begin in southern Shikoku and western Kyushu at the beginning of February. It is expected to expand to the Kinki, Chugoku, Tokai and Kanto regions by late February, followed by Tohoku in early March.
The annual release of tree pollen, which causes hay fever in an estimated 25 million people in Japan, is carefully monitored in Japan, where countermeasures have thus far failed to control the vast number of pollen-producing trees.
Cryptomeria (known as "sugi" in Japanese) and Japanese cypress (known as "hinoki") trees were planted after World War II to aid rebuilding, but were later abandoned for cheaper alternatives. This resulted in dense forestation of more mature, pollen-producing trees.
The ministry advises hay fever sufferers to wear surgical masks and glasses when outdoors, and to dry their clothes inside.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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Utrack
Not one word of the possibility of radioactivity in the tree pollen. Forests in Tohoku have had high readings in the past so what has changed?? Pollen can be airborne for miles... What happened to the current testing that should be done and was being done in 2011?? Why are there No new tests being reported?? It can't be the expense since J Govt has billions of Yen to spare for TEPCO.
Sugar Bowl
I would gladly trade the Senkaku Islands to China for a band of Chinese lumberjacks to fell those damned cedar and cypress trees across this country at no extra cost.
It is ridiculous how much time and money is spent on a non-problem but no laws are passed to do something about something genuinely plaguing the people living in this country.
Melissa Baker-Lhermitte
Example of Past tree pollen testing articles on JT
Radioactive cedar pollen detected in Fukushima National Dec. 29, 2011 - 06:30AM JST
High radiation levels of more than 250,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium have been detected in male flowers of Japanese cedar trees in the restricted zone around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/radioactive-cedar-pollen-detected-in-fukushima
What has changed?? Why are there No new tests being reported??
CrazyJoe
It's generally a good idea to keep an eye on the weather forecast as well as on the pollen count. That way you can try to reconcile the two.
TokyoGas
Pollen season... ugh. OK eyes and nose, get ready to get pummeled for a few weeks. :(
Serrano
When are they going to cut down all these cedar trees that spew this misery-causing pollen every year? Never?
DaDude
Man, I am already sneezing just reading this article.
B.B.Q.Demon
TrevorPeace1: The pollen problem here isn't very natural. It was caused by the policy of the Japanese post war government to plant lots of cedar trees to be harvested foot lumber later. Now, they're to expensive to harvest, so they grow and grow and spew pollen.
Matt
I heard that the hayfever wasn't going to be as severe as usual. Maybe it was just a rumour...
Elbuda Mexicano
Beer!! Yes beer and alcohol is really bad if you already have hay fever!! Avoid beer and all booze now!!
TrevorPeace1
BBQDemon: 'Cedar' trees? I have them all around me, here on the wild wet coast of British Columbia and they're anything but pollen generators. If it's a specific species of cedar, then I'll go with you on saying cut them down, but there's a heck of a lot more pollen generated by other plants, and most of them are a lot smaller than trees with trunks six feet through and larger. Or are you talking about dinky little twigs that I can take down with my chainsaw and its four-foot blade? You're talking to a fourth-generation logger, here. And, I guess luckily, someone who doesn't sneeze in the forest. But then, if you sneeze in the forest and no one hears you, do you really make a sound?
Elbuda Mexicano
I know you all do not want to read about beer, alcohol but all of this is really bad for your POLLEN ALLERGIES, all of this alcohol has sugar, and the sugar goes in your stomach where we all have a fungus, and this FUNGUS LOVES SUGAR!! Yes, and this BAD FUNGUS only gets worse and worse and then your hay fever gets worse and worse!! I did not believe this but my kanpoyaku doctor told me to avoid beer, milk, sweets,etc...so at first I did not believe him and did not do as he told me and my hay fever was terrible that year. But about 3 years ago I paid attention to him and avoided beer, sweets etc..and WOW, now I can BREATH THROUGH my NOSE! Something I could not do because I had been feeding this bad fungus too much sugar, making my hay fever symptoms only worse! If you do not believe this, try it your self this hay fever or pollen allergy season. By the way, kanpoyaku, means the traditional Chinese herbal medicine, which treat cause not the effect, the opposite from Western medicine.
TrevorPeace1
Should I laugh or cry? Okay, 25 million people suffering some form of allergy to pollen may be nothing to laugh at, but in this serious gardener's opinion, pollen is an important part of nature. If you sneeze because of it, or get the red-eye, get over it. There are all sorts of over-the-counter remedies. This isn't a plague - it's nature. Geez, and the Japanese are supposed to be nature worshipers! Can't wait for cherry blossom season! "Breathe deep, the gathering gloom..." Sorry, lost my mind there.