Over the weekend, temperatures in parts of Japan rose above 35 degrees Celsius for five days, unprecedented in 150 years.
Temperatures in the capital Tokyo were also above 35 degrees for three days in a row.
According to data from the Tokyo Fire Department Ambulance Service, 80 people aged 12 to 96 were hospitalized on Monday, after 93 people were hospitalized with suspected heat stroke on Sunday.
On the other hand, the authorities warned the public at the beginning of the week to set their air conditioners to 28 degrees and to use such electrical appliances less, against the risk that the dangerous decrease in electricity reserves caused by the increased use of air conditioners will cause energy shortages.
However, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike appealed to the elderly population in Japan, where most of what the authorities said was followed, and asked them not to endanger their own health while trying to fulfill this call to the letter.
Local governments also make frequent announcements throughout the day, warning the people to drink plenty of water, turn on the air conditioner if necessary, and not go out unless necessary.
THE ‘INCREDIBLE FATE’ OF THE ELDERLY
As the rainy season, which usually extends until July, ends 22 days earlier this year, the heatwave that followed hit Japan earlier and more severely than usual.
Every year, summer turns into a nightmare for the elderly living alone in Japan.
One in two women and one in three men hospitalized due to heat in the country with a rapidly aging population is 65 years or older.
According to the latest data, 162 people died in Japan in the summer of 2019 due to heat stroke.
However, there is an interesting situation. Like every year, the majority of these people are found dead in an air-conditioned house, not outside, where the heat prevails. It is estimated that this is because most of them are elderly people who live alone and are too dependent on care to turn on the air conditioner but cannot seek help.
The absence of these people living apart from their families in Japan is only noticed after they die. There is a system coordinated by the municipality to collect their homes after the dead and give them their last duty.
Sometimes, even the elderly living together cannot escape this unfortunate luck. Among those killed in the extreme heatwave of 2019 is a 90-year-old mother and her 60-year-old daughter caring for her, for example.
The mother cared for by her daughter, who died at home in late July that year as a result of an illness, also died of neglect shortly after her, but no one noticed this for a long time.
The paramedics, who entered the house and found the bodies of the two women, stated that they measured the temperature of the room, which should normally be 20 degrees, to 38 degrees, and that they did not find any indication that the air conditioner was being used.
According to the results of the Tokyo Forensic Medicine Institute’s research on people who died of heat stroke in 23 districts of Tokyo that year, 90 percent of these people either have air conditioners, but never used or have never had air conditioners.
Although the symptoms of heat stroke vary from person to person, the most obvious ones are dizziness, muscle pain and nausea.
Finally, meteorologists; He announced that the weather in Tokyo is expected to be rainy again next week and the temperature is expected to drop a bit.
Although many countries in the northern hemisphere, which is currently experiencing the summer season in the world, have abandoned the habit of using masks at the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, almost all of the people in Japan still continue to use masks even outside.
While extreme heat continues to be a bigger problem every year in Japan, national and international organizations are also affected by it.
Tokyo Olympics, which was planned to be held in July 2020, was postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic; At that time, it was thought that it would be a great risk to run the marathon, which was supposed to be run in Tokyo, in extreme heat.
Thereupon, the marathon was taken from Tokyo and given to Sapporo, the capital city of the island of Hokkaido, where summers are much cooler in the north of the country.