SNA (Tokyo) — While Japanese leaders continue to focus on possible future threats from external nations like China and Russia, the very immediate threat of climate change is taking hundreds of Japanese lives each year, with an inadequate response from the authorities.

The Japan Meteorological Agency reported last week that 2023 was the hottest year on record going back to the first systematic measurements in the late 19th century. The hottest five years in recorded Japanese history were the last five years. Temperature spikes in summer are now reaching above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of the main island.

Ocean surface temperatures are also rising to record levels.

The annual average number of heatstroke deaths in Japan has now climbed to a level of about 1,300 people. While most of these victims have been elderly, there are also cases of school children dying as well. Access to air conditioning in the summer months is sometimes becoming a matter of life and death.

The impact of the hotter climate on wildlife, agriculture, and fisheries has been many and varied. There is a steady drumbeat of scientific studies ringing the alarm bells, but for whatever reasons, these are not being presented to the public as a crisis by Japanese policymakers.

For four consecutive years, Japan has been “awarded” the Fossil of the Day designation by Climate Action Network, an international nonprofit environmental organization.

Climate activists contend that Japan has been presenting a series of unproven and ineffective technologies as solutions for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, while they are, in fact, camouflage for an actual policy of extending the use of coal and fossil fuels both in Japan and in Asia for as long as possible.

This article was originally published on January 8, 2023, in the “Japan and the World” newsletter. Become a Shingetsu News supporter on Patreon and receive the newsletter by email each Monday morning.