Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
University of Tokyo professor Makoto Yokohari, who has been comparing Tokyo's weather trends with the temperatures of host cities of the Summer Olympic Games over the last 30 years. Experts are worried that large numbers of athletes and spectators may suffer heatstroke during the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
© Mainichi ShimbunVoices
in
Japan
quote of the day
Tokyo summers are both very hot and humid. Compared with past host cities, the atmospheric conditions are the absolute worst, and this will take quite a toll on the human body.
©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
8 Comments
Login to comment
thepersoniamnow
Lol true that.
But the China Olympics had the haze.
JeffLee
This should be interesting. in my experience the searing oppressive heat is broken sporadically by raging typhoons. Not exactly a climate that inspires a festive mood.
Mind you, the current spell is bizarrely a reversion to the cooler rainy season. Climate change is the wild card.
Speed
That's why Japan was smart to hold the Olympics in '64 in October. Perfect weather for these events.
sf2k
Tokyo 64 was correct in moving the games to October. Given the zero understanding of heatstroke in Japan today I can't see how a games during a Tokyo summer is going to be appropriate
sangetsu03
The games will not be moved to October. Too much is already in motion, and the games have been held in other hot cities with lots of pollution, like Beijing and Seoul.
As for the heat, there has been a great absence of it this summer. Only one day out of the last two weeks has been hot. Every day this week has been sweater weather, and businessmen are wearing their jackets instead of carrying them on their arms. Today it was supposed to be 32 degrees, then the forecast was reduced to 30, and it looks as though it won't reach that either. In a decade in living in Japan, this is the coolest summer so far. I have not had to turn on the air conditioning at all this week.
Citizen2012
Summer + heat + Humidity...that does not stop my local metro station to not provide air conditioner on the underground platform except on a small 2mx2m glass box, I am wondering how is no more old people and asthma prone people collapsing there.
PS: They do not provide Air Conditioner to the customers waiting on the platform but if you go into their office to ask the reason why there is no Air Conditioner down there, you will get the answer that it is not working (now for 3 years) while noticing their own Air Conditioner is working pretty well & at full speed.
wanderlust
Heat island effect of all those "skyscrapers" around the periphery of Tokyo, reducing airflow through the central area. 25 years ago, it was comfortable; now with Mori and other architects' buildings towering over you, the air is stifling, and sometimes hard to breathe.