Tokyo
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Whenever he is at home, 84-year-old Moridaya has an alarm device that measures temperature and humidity, allowing you to call emergency responders at the press of a button. He takes it to the bed, to the kitchen, to the bath.
That’s because he knows he can easily fall into the sacrifice of a heat stroke.
Alarm devices are part of the government’s push to combat a deadly double emergency. This is the conflict between Japan’s climate crisis and its aging population.
Elderly people everywhere are particularly vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat, but Japan’s problems are exacerbated by isolation and other cultural factors.
Like millions of other Japanese elders, Morita lives alone, and no one would know if he suddenly fell ill. Thermal strokes provide little warning to seniors.
“Daily life is tough,” he said. “When you get sick – if you’re alone, there’s nothing you can do.”
It’s not just countries facing this predicament. South Korea and China also recorded the hottest summers, but much of Europe faced the worst wildfire seasons, with human-focused climate change promoting higher temperatures and more extreme, unpredictable weather.
Many of these places see their own demographic decline. However, Japan is widely considered to be the oldest and fastest aging society in the world. That is, other countries are closely watching potential solutions as they compete to protect older residents at the heat front.
According to the official weather agency, this summer is Japan’s hottest and recorded. In August, Japan recorded its highest temperature at 41.8 degrees Celsius (107.24 Fahrenheit).
The heat this year has been going on for a long, choking stretch. High temperatures began in June and continued into September, well beyond the normal end of summer. In late August, Chuo Tokyo was the longest thermal streak on record, with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), the weather agency said.
Throughout the merciless summer, Japanese hospitals have been receiving waves of elderly patients, including those who collapsed at home or on the streets under the SC fever sun.
Climate change, caused primarily by the burning of planetary fossil fuels, makes heat waves more common, intense and long-lasting. And as global average temperatures continue to rise, severe heat could become a new normal, as seen in Japan this summer.
Hundreds of seniors have already died of heat stroke every year in the country. Between May and August, 90,000 people across the country were taken to hospitals, according to the Japanese Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
“In many cases, older people don’t feel much fever, it’s difficult to regulate their temperature, and they don’t easily notice thirst,” said Shimazaki Takahashi, section manager of the health department in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward. “So there’s a high chance that you’ll develop a fever stroke without even realizing it.”
Humans sweat and cool themselves through the process of evaporation. But “this mechanism actually becomes weaker for older people,” said Qiang Guo, an assistant professor at Tsukuba University, who leads a lab group studying climate change solutions.
In Japan, the problem is heightened by certain cultural and demographic factors. For example, the decline in fertility rates means that Japan is shrinking its workforce, with fewer young people available to fill the gaps left by older workers, and they are forced to suffer rather than quitting.
“More than 70% of Japanese farmers are over 65 years old, and these older adults are vulnerable to heat stress,” he said. “So when heat stress or heat waves come, it’s not only a public health issue, it’s also an economic issue.”
Another factor that can confuse outsiders is their reluctance to using air conditioners at home.
According to NHK, a public broadcaster, out of 101 people who died in Tokyo this summer, 101 people died in a room with an air conditioner (ACS) in Tokyo.
This is a long-standing problem that stems from both tradition and need.
“There was a time when Summers wasn’t as hot as it is now, so many (older people) have become used to living without air conditioning,” Shimazaki said. “These people may try and try again with their fans even in extreme heat.”
Others can avoid using ACS because they think they are not environmentally friendly or because they cannot afford to pay a high power bill.
That’s why Morita, 84, from Tokyo, uses his AC modestly. His kids will call to check him out and ask if he is using the air conditioner, he says – he answers, “Well, I want to, but that costs money.”
However, he is still wary of getting a heat stroke. “I set the AC in the night with a timer. It stops when the timer ends, but it’s hot so I wake up in the middle of the night. “It’s really that cycle.”
However, one of the biggest risk factors is isolation.
Loneliness has expanded beyond the age group for years, even urging the government to appoint a minister of loneliness and isolation in 2021.
However, the problem is particularly severe for older people, leaving them vulnerable to the year of sunset without a support network.
According to the National Institute for Population and Social Security, as of 2020, over 13% of Japanese households were people over the age of 65 who lived alone. That number is expected to continue to increase. By 2050, the institute predicted in its report last year.
Many of these seniors live alone in small towns and rural areas after their children gather in urban centres like Tokyo, Goo said.
The consequences of isolation in older people have been revealed in several recent severe phenomena. For example, the rise of “lonely deaths,” people have not been found for more than a few weeks after dying. According to NHK, of the 76,000 deaths of people who lived alone and died in their homes last year, more than 70% were over 65 years old, citing police figures.
Some older people resort to hopeless measures such as stealing food to survive. Others don’t want to leave prison. I prefer regular meals, free health care, elder care, and dating behind bars that are missing outside.
In terms of heat, this separation is equally devastating. Elderly people may not call if they feel sick. Also, no one notices symptoms of people who don’t realize they are suffering from heat stroke until it’s too late.
According to the World Weather Organization, the clock allows Japan to find a solution to find a solution.
“I think China and South Korea will look into what measures are being taken in Japan and whether they should learn something,” Guo said.
Japan’s initiatives range from practical to innovative. For example, various cities, including Tokyo, Osaka and the firstborn, offer subsidies for seniors to purchase AC units. They also introduced “cooling spots.” This is an indoor, air-conditioned public space designed to help people rest and hydrate.
Tokyo’s Nerima Ward alone has 270 such cooling spots, Shimazaki said. These include both government facilities and local private companies that provide cool spaces such as shops, pharmacies, community centres, libraries and cafes.
Nerima also installed an emergency warning system. This is something Morita uses at home. These emergency warning devices, in the size of large electronic tablets, play warning messages when the risk of heat stroke is high, allowing users to ask for help, Shimazaki said.
Other technical solutions are being tried, including heat prevention watches that detect rising body temperatures, which the Tokyo government supports development and distribution.
However, much of the government’s efforts focus on filling the biggest gap in the lives of older people. It’s a human company and care.
Many local governments have launched community programs to participate in volunteers visiting door to door and checking in with seniors.
In addition to measuring their health and well-being, these volunteers will also provide information such as advice on cool ways that are part of a wider awareness campaign, including distributing pamphlets to public spaces and giving free talks on topics.
For Morita, these home visits are an important resource after his wife passed away three years ago. He ensures that he drinks water and wears a hat when he goes outside during the summer – his way of honoring the old vows.
“It was a promise with my wife – living to 99 years old,” he said. “We said we would live longer together, but we couldn’t.”
“The heat makes me sleep like this, but… living alone is really tough,” he said.
