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This is how the Japanese are coping with a record-setting heatwave

Life in a sauna.
Life in a sauna.
Image: Reuters/Issei Kato/
By
Echo Huang
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Japan is currently battling a deadly heatwave, which has left 65 people dead and more than 22,000 hospitalized. The national weather agency declared the heatwave a natural disaster.

Kumagaya, a city northwest of Tokyo in Saitma prefecture, recorded the country’s highest ever temperature of 41.1° C (106° F) yesterday (Monday), 12° C higher than the average July temperature for Japan. It broke the previous record of 41° C recorded in Ekawasaki on the island of Shikoku in August 2013. Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike likened the heatwave to “living in a sauna.”

Nearby South Korea is also undergoing a heatwave, recording a temperature of 40.3° C (104.54° F) today (Tuesday) in the south of the country, the highest since record keeping began in 1907.

Here’s how some people in Japan are living with the sweltering temperatures.

A volunteer, for recovery work, uses a pack of refrigerant to a cool down as she takes a break in a heat wave at a flood affected area in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan, July 14, 2018.
A volunteer for recovery work uses a pack of refrigerant to a cool down as she takes a break at a flood-affected area in Kurashiki, Okayama prefecture.
Image: Reuters/Issei Kato
A woman holds a portable fan at a business district in Tokyo, Monday, July 23, 2018. Searing hot temperatures are forecast for wide swaths of Japan and South Korea in a long-running heat wave. The mercury is expected to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday in the city of Nagoya in central Japan and reach 37 in Tokyo. Deaths have been reported almost every day.
A woman holds a portable fan at a business district in Tokyo.
Image: AP Photo/Koji Sasahara
A man uses a fan as he walks on a street in Tokyo, Japan, July 17, 2018.
A man uses a fan as he walks on a street in Tokyo.
Image: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon
A businessman wipes his face while walking on a street in on Monday.
A businessman wipes his face while walking on a street in Tokyo on July 23.
Image: Reuters/Issei Kato
People cool down under the cooling mist spot in Tokyo on Monday (July 23), 2018. Searing hot temperatures are forecast for wide swaths of Japan and South Korea in a long-running heat wave. The mercury is expected to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday in the city of Nagoya in central Japan and reach 37 (99 F) in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
People cool down under cooling mist in Tokyo.
Image: AP Photo/Koji Sasahara
A woman wearing a Yukata, or summer kimono, splashes water onto the hot asphalt in an old Japanese tradition called Uchimizu ritual, meant to cool down the air as the water evaporates, outside a pachinko game parlor in Tokyo.
A woman wearing a yukata, or summer kimono, splashes water onto the hot asphalt in Tokyo, in an old Japanese tradition called uchimizu which is meant to cool down the air as the water evaporates.
Image: Reuters/Issei Kato
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games mascot Miraitowa, Paralympic mascot Someity and children splash water during an old Japanese tradition called Uchimizu ritual, meant to cool down the air as the water evaporates, prior to a countdown event to mark the two years until the opening of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Children splash water during the uchimizu ritual, prior to a countdown event to mark two years until the opening of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Image: ReutersS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Children play in the water jets at a park near Nerima in Tokyo as temperature rose up to 39.6 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature since the start of weather information record. While central Tokyo hit the 39 degrees mark, the city of Kumagaya, north of Tokyo measured 41.1 degrees Celsius , the yet highest temperature in Japan. From the end of April to mid-July 2018, reportedly so far 21,166 people were taken to hospital for heat related problems, alone from 09 to 15 July, a total of 9,956 people were hospitalized due to suffering from the hot weather conditions, Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Children play in water jets at a park near Nerima in Tokyo.
Image: EPA-EFE/Kimimasa Mayama
A worker stands in front of a fan spraying mist at the construction site of the New National Stadium, the main stadium of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
A worker stands in front of a fan spraying mist at the construction site of the New National Stadium, the main stadium of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Image: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Electrical fans are seen during the heatwave, at the construction site of the New National Stadium, the main stadium of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Electrical fans are seen at the construction site of the New National Stadium.
Image: Reuters/Issei Kato