Health warnings for tourists as Japan swelters during record heatwave
- More than 460 people were admitted to hospitals for treatment for heatstroke over the weekend
- Japan’s Environment Ministry has even launched a campaign encouraging men to carry parasols
Visitors to Japan have been warned to take extra precautions to avoid the effects of soaring temperatures during a record heatwave.
Unseasonably hot weather continued in Japan on Monday, with the mercury topping 30 degrees Celsius a fourth straight day in central Tokyo, a new record for May.
Among 926 monitoring posts across the country, 340 reported temperatures above 30 degrees. Ichihara in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, hit 35.7 degrees, followed by Obihiro in northern Japan’s Hokkaido and Ishikawa in Fukushima which both reached 35.5 degrees.
The temperature in Hokkaido reached 39.5 degrees on Sunday, the highest figure ever recorded in the month of May anywhere in Japan and the highest temperature ever reported in the prefecture. The previous high was 37.2 degrees in May 1993 in Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo.
The weather was extreme in the far north of Japan but about 60 per cent of all weather monitoring stations across the country posted readings of 30 degrees or higher.
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More than 460 people were admitted to hospital for treatment for heatstroke over the weekend and there are concerns that number will rise in the hottest summer months. About 95,000 people were hospitalised for heat-related problems last year, some 42,000 more than in the summer of 2017.
There is particular concern for tourists, especially those from countries with cooler, less humid climates.
“We are telling all customers who visit our retail outlets that they need to take as many precautions as possible,” said Kaori Mori, a spokeswoman for domestic travel giant JTB Corp.
“We think direct communication is the best way to get the message across and we are telling people that they need to cover up and wear a hat, make sure they drink plenty of water and to avoid getting too hot and overtired.”
More than 8.1 million foreign tourists flocked to Japan in June, July and August of last year, with each month recording record highs for inbound tourists. For the entire year, a record 31.2 million visitors arrived in Japan, up from 28.7 million arrivals in the previous year and putting the country on course to hit the national government’s target of 40 million arrivals in 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympic Games.
Japan’s Environment Ministry has even launched a campaign encouraging men to carry parasols – an accessory traditionally more popular among women.
The ministry, though, is promoting the concept of higasa danshi, meaning “sun umbrella men” – according to the ministry, a parasol can help to reduce the heat by as much as 3 degrees and reduces the amount that a person sweats by 20 per cent more than wearing a hat.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
