Japan affected by record temperatures, fears of energy shortage

Japanese authorities warned, Monday, of a possible shortage of electricity, at a time when the country is experiencing record temperatures and Tokyo just experienced the shortest rainy season in its history.

“We ask residents to reduce their energy consumption at the beginning of the night” when electricity reserves are at their lowest in Greater Tokyo, Deputy Secretary-General of the Japanese Government Yoshihiko Isozaki said on Monday.

The government urged residents to take the necessary measures to protect themselves from the heat and avoid heat stroke.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) forecast temperatures of up to 35 degrees Celsius on Monday in the country’s capital, with the thermometer not dropping below 34 degrees Celsius before next Sunday.

Despite the fact that a large part of Japan should be in the middle of the rainy season at this time of year, the JMA announced that it ended Monday in the Kanto region, where Tokyo is located.

This is the fastest ending of the rainy season – 22 days earlier than usual – since Japan began measuring comparable data in 1951.

The rainy season also ended on Monday in central Japan and much of the island of Kyushu (southwest), which is also a record.

On Sunday, the thermometer reached 40.2 degrees Celsius in the city of Issaki, one hundred kilometers north of Tokyo, the highest temperature recorded in Japan in the month of June.