(Hat tip to Yuki Nakayama for sending us information included in this article.)
This summer, Japan experienced a record-setting number of days without sunlight, which dampened temperatures and delayed the onset of the country’s monsoon season (梅雨; tsuyu) by a month.
But the heat did come – and it’s already claimed at least one victim. A 28-year-old at Osaka’s Hirakata park who was dressed as a costumed character to perform for children collapsed and later died at a local hospital. The organizers insisted that the actor was fully hydrated, and showed no signs of ill health during a dry run earlier in the day. An investigation into his death is ongoing.
Since then, the heat wave’s only gotten hotter. As of this writing, over 400 people have been taken to the hospital on suspicion of nettchuushou (熱中症), or heat stroke, and there are an unconfirmed number of deaths.
The punishing heat has led to the usual rounds of calls on news programs and on the Web for people to “be careful” and “stay hydrated.” But it’s also leading many to ask how Japan is going to prevent massive cases of heat stroke in 2020, when over 10,000 of the world’s top athletes and half a million tourists are scheduled to descend on Tokyo for the Summer Olympics.
People are fearing, not just for the athletes, but the spectators. Temperatures during last summer’s peaked almost hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius). The main stadium for the Olympics is a good 10-minute walk from the nearest subway station. When TV reporter Goharu Akiko walked from the train station to the Olympic volleyball court just this week, she found herself drenched in sweat – and this year’s heat wave has only just begun.
Users on Twitter are echoing similar sentiments. Professor Nakazawa Minato of Kobe University recently lit into what he deemed the hypocrisy of Japanese media:
Saying on the same TV program that people have died of heat stroke and we’re facing a heat wave, so be careful, and then also welcoming the Olympics, is a contradiction no matter how you slice it. I mean, they’re also saying we’re facing a shortage of first aid workers if we don’t postpone the event until fall or cancel it.
And many immigrants living in Japan have the same concerns. Rachel Thorn, a Professor of Manga at Kyoto Seika University and a long term resident, made a frightening prediction:
Kids Forced to Sweat the Olympics?
A new dimension to the Olympics Weather Fear story reared its head this week when someone raised the specter that Japan’s children would be subjected to the grueling heat.
Twitter user diesonne634, in a 7-part tweet, alleged hearing that at least one school was planning on having teachers take groups of students to the Olympics. Despite the event happening during summer break, the tweet alleged that the event would be mandatory. Missing it would count as skipping class.
The leading tweet of the thread garnered over 80,000 retweets and sparked a large discussion. Most comments are from people who were already sick of the Olympics and used the thread to call for its cancellation. Others lambasted the Abe administration for using kids as cheerleaders. Others questioned the veracity of the information. Some wondered whether the entire thread wasn’t a prank.
So Kasane Nakamura at Huffington Post Japan contacted the section chief for Instruction and Planning at Tokyo’s Educational Office for clarification. The official she contacted denied flatly that students would be compelled to attend the Olympics. However, the official’s answers got more circumspect from there. The section chief confirmed that schools were being given the opportunity to take students to the Olympics, but wouldn’t specify how many schools or potential students. And when Nakamura asked if it was true that participating schools would consider students absent if they didn’t attend the Olympics, the official replied:
あくまで授業の一環なので、参加しなければ欠席扱いにはなると思います。ただ、夏休み中のことなので、「欠席はダメ」とは考えていません。
Since it’s ultimately part of their education, I think they’d be considered absent if they didn’t attend. But it’s the middle of summer vacation, so it’s not a “you can’t be absent” thing.”
In other words: No, students aren’t being compelled to attend. Unless they are. But who cares?
The official’s comments sound like a “non-admission admission” intended to deflect responsibility. Yes, this could happen – but hey, it’s not our fault! This means that, yes, some schools may indeed decide to subject their students to compulsory Olympics viewing.
Based on the reactions to the tweet above, I suspect that if that does happen, most parents will elect to keep their kids in the air-conditioned indoors until both the sweltering heat and the Olympics both blow over.
