Japan is suffering a blistering heat wave and energy crunch

VPM | By Anthony Kuhn

Published July 3, 2022 at 11:47 AM EDT

Updated April 12, 2023

SHANNON BOND, HOST:

Japan is sweltering right now. It’s the country’s worst heat wave in decades, and there’s an energy crunch. NPR’s Anthony Kuhn reports from Kyoto about the government response and how people there are trying to keep cool.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: As Japan slowly reopens its borders, tourists are trickling back into the former capital of Japan for more than a thousand years. But with temperatures in the mid-90s, there were few tourists to be seen downtown on Thursday. Minoru Ikuta, who works at a machinery company, ducked into a shop to get himself a manually operated cooling device.

MINORU IKUTA: (Through interpreter) I was on my way to dinner, but it was too hot. So I stopped in here to buy a fan.

KUHN: A flick of his new purchase unleashes a cool, perfumed breeze.

IKUTA: (Through interpreter) I like the fragrance, and you can control the wind speed yourself.

KUHN: The mercury topped a hundred and four degrees in some parts of the country this week. Such temperatures are not unheard of in Japan, but usually not until the end of the rainy season in mid-July. The government says more than 4,500 people were sent to hospitals for heatstroke and heat exhaustion last week. Japanese businesses have tried to save energy by turning lights down and thermostats up.

At a press briefing, energy official Kaname Ogawa offered residents some advice.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KANAME OGAWA: (Speaking Japanese).

KUHN: “Please conserve electricity,” he said, “while using air conditioning appropriately to avoid heat stroke and turn off any unnecessary lights.”

Since Japan shut down its nuclear power plants in the wake of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, the country has relied heavily on imported energy. But with Japan’s currency, the yen, at a more than two-decade low to the dollar, imported energy prices have skyrocketed. Minoru Ikuta sounds a note of resignation.

IKUTA: (Through interpreter) Many citizens are against nuclear power plants, but this is an island nation, and it’s hard to get oil and gas. So we may just have to operate nuclear plants in the future.

KUHN: Near the fan shop, college student Ayana Uno emerges from an ice cream parlor and complains that her face mask is too hot.

AYANA UNO: (Speaking Japanese).

KUHN: “I’ve heard that you don’t have to wear them outside,” she notes. “But lots of people just keep on wearing them, so it’s hard to take it off. And I’m keeping mine on.”

Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Kyoto. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Anthony Kuhn

Anthony Kuhn is NPR's correspondent based in Seoul, South Korea, reporting on the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the great diversity of Asia's countries and cultures. Before moving to Seoul in 2018, he traveled to the region to cover major stories including the North Korean nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster.

Kuhn previously served two five-year stints in Beijing, China, for NPR, during which he covered major stories such as the Beijing Olympics, geopolitical jousting in the South China Sea, and the lives of Tibetans, Uighurs, and other minorities in China's borderlands.

He took a particular interest in China's rich traditional culture and its impact on the current day. He has recorded the sonic calling cards of itinerant merchants in Beijing's back alleys, and the descendants of court musicians of the Tang Dynasty. He has profiled petitioners and rights lawyers struggling for justice, and educational reformers striving to change the way Chinese think.

From 2010-2013, Kuhn was NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Among other stories, he explored Borneo and Sumatra, and witnessed the fight to preserve the biodiversity of the world's oldest forests. He also followed Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, as she rose from political prisoner to head of state.

Kuhn served as NPR's correspondent in London from 2004-2005, covering stories including the London subway bombings and the marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Duchess of Cornwall.

Besides his major postings, Kuhn's journalistic horizons have been expanded by various short-term assignments. These produced stories including wartime black humor in Iraq, musical diplomacy by the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang, North Korea, a kerfuffle over the plumbing in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Pakistani artists' struggle with religious extremism in Lahore, and the Syrian civil war's spillover into neighboring Lebanon.

Prior to joining NPR, Kuhn wrote for the Far Eastern Economic Review and freelanced for various news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. He majored in French literature as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, and later did graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American studies in Nanjing.

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