Cherry blossoms are blooming earlier than ever before, with the chiffon-pink that has traditionally heralded spring for the country appearing only two weeks into March.
On March 22, temperatures in Osaka reached a record high of 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit).
Tottori, in the southwest, reached 25.8 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit) on the same day, the highest in 140 years, according to climatologist Maximiliano Herrera.
In March, the average temperature in Tottori is 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit).
Japan Urged To Curb Impact, Emissions
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With temperatures already rising and the use of fossil fuels that contribute to climate change increasing around the world, Japan is in for another hot summer with a growing risk of flooding and landslides, as per Phys.org.
The country is scrambling to protect communities from warming and has pledged to reduce emissions, but worsening weather remains a threat in the short term.
"The risks of climate change are right in front of us," said Yasuaki Hijioka, deputy director of the National Institute for Environmental Studies Center for Climate Change Adaptation in Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo.
Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons are already common in Japan.
For the most part, secure infrastructure has kept people safe.
However, because the systems were designed for previous weather conditions, communities are frequently caught off guard as a result of climate change.
If you're pushing a 20th-century-designed electrical grid into a new century of warming and heat extremes, you'll have to consider whether your energy system and healthcare system are truly designed for a warming planet, according to Kim Cobb, director of The Institute at Brown for Environment and Society.
More than 200 temperature records were broken in cities across the country last year, straining the energy grid and sending over 71,000 people to the hospital for heatstroke from May to September.
According to government statistics, the majority of patients were elderly, but a significant number of children and middle-aged adults were also admitted.
Warming weather can also hold more moisture, adding flooding and landslides to the summer forecast, which Japan has seen more frequently.
Bullet trains were partially submerged in flooding caused by Typhoon Hagibis in 2019.
Landslides engulfed homes and highways, while people and cars were trapped in flooded tunnels.
Dams were unable to withstand the unexpectedly heavy rainfall.
Hijioka's research is centered on flood management, such as diverting water from rising rivers upstream into rice paddies and ponds to drain in order to prevent flooding.
To prevent heatstroke deaths, a proposed law would designate certain community buildings as shelters, such as air-conditioned libraries. This type of national-level law is novel in Japan.
Despite the country's advanced economy, some people cannot afford air conditioning, particularly in hotter areas.
Because of the recent extreme heat, schools in northern Japan, such as Nagano, have installed air conditioning.
Michio Kawamiya, director of the Research Center for Environmental Modeling and Application, and his colleagues study Japan's rising temperatures and their effects on people.
Among their findings: cherry blossoms have bloomed one day earlier on average every decade since 1953. The color of maple leaves has changed 2.8 days slower per decade.
Even though the threat of heavy snowfall remains, the risk of typhoons has increased and the amount of snowfall has decreased.
Japan has made some progress in reducing its use of fossil fuels, but it remains the world's sixth-largest emitter.
Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan shut down nuclear generation and, unfortunately for the climate, invested in new coal plants as well as imported oil and gas to keep its grid operational.
Since then, nuclear power plants have been gradually restarted.
Melting ice and rising sea levels receive a lot of attention when it comes to the climate crisis, and for good reason, as per The Climate Reality Project.
As a result, many countries are constantly threatened by sea-level rise, and in some extreme cases, are on the verge of being submerged entirely.
Although Japan does not face quite this level of threat, rising seas and their associated effects are already wreaking havoc on coastal areas.
Typhoon Jebi, for example, flooded Kansai International Airport in September 2018, a popular gateway to the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe.
The climate crisis is causing more than just flooding along Japan's coasts.
As recent events have demonstrated, the mainland is also at risk.
A devastating downpour in western Japan in July 2018 forced 2 million people to flee their homes.
This deluge flooded hundreds of thousands of homes and tragically claimed the lives of over 200 people.
Following the event, experts agreed that the storm's intensity was fueled by our changing climate.
That downpour is just one example of a climate phenomenon that is sweeping Japan; as temperatures rise, water evaporates more quickly.
As a result, rain falls less frequently but is harder when it does. Given that Japan's average temperature is rising faster than the global average, this process is expected to accelerate unless global greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
The same holds true for heatwaves.
Japan will continue to heat up unless we drastically reduce emissions.
The country got a taste of what this future might be like in 2018, when a heatwave broke its temperature record, reaching 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit).
This event, which the Japanese government later declared a natural disaster, hospitalized over 30,000 people and claimed at least 80 lives.
