Japan feels the heat as temperatures set to soar again this summer

“To already see 27 degrees (80.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in April is very worrying, and there will certainly be an impact on human health.”

Thermometers in central Tokyo touched a high of 26.1 degrees Celsius on Saturday afternoon, a temperature typically not seen in the city until mid-June. Several other cities across Japan similarly recorded unusually warm conditions for the time of year, with Sano in Tochigi prefecture, just north of Tokyo, the hottest at 27.9 degrees.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has blamed the elevated temperatures on a high-pressure system moving over the main island of Honshu, with Isesaki in Gunma prefecture, central Japan, reporting a maximum temperature of 27.1 degrees and the city of Funabashi, east of Tokyo, experiencing 26.6 degrees. It will be even hotter over the summer, the agency said.

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In late July last year, the agency issued a nationwide warning of “once-in-a-decade temperatures”, with spot temperatures nudging 40 degrees (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The daytime temperature for July in Japan typically averages around 30 degrees (86 degrees Fahrenheit) and 23 degrees (73.4 degrees Fahrenheit) at night, but both figures have been climbing in recent years.

This summer is on course to match those withering temperatures. In its predictions for the April-to-June quarter, the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 60 per cent likelihood of the southern two-thirds of the nation experiencing above-normal temperatures, with the Tohoku region of northern Japan and Hokkaido having a 50 per cent likelihood of elevated temperatures.

It’s a similar picture in the June-August period, with the possibility of