Heatwave blankets Japan, kills at least 15 people including a primary schoolboy

A primary schoolboy in Aichi prefecture, in central Japan, who had complained to his teacher that he was feeling “tired” while on the way to a nearby park for a school activity, died on Tuesday due to heatwave.

Five other primary school boys in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward were also sent to hospital with signs of minor heat exhaustion during a soccer game.

The intense heatwave had killed at least 15 people since last Saturday, media reported on Tuesday, and high temperatures hampered the recovery in flood-hit areas where more than 200 people died last week. Temperatures on Monday, a national holiday, surged above 39°C in some inland areas and combined with high humidity to produce dangerous conditions, the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

Among the dead was also a woman in her 90s who was found unconscious in a field. Thousands more were treated in hospitals for heat-related conditions. The heat was most intense in landlocked areas such as Gifu prefecture, where it soared to 39.3°C in the town of Ibigawa on Monday - the hottest in the nation.

The capital Tokyo recorded a high of 34°C on Monday. Temperatures in parts of western Japan hit by deadly floods reached a high of 34.3°C by midday on Tuesday, creating dangerous conditions for military personnel and volunteers clearing mud and debris.

It’s really hot. All we can do is keep drinking water,” one man in Okayama told NHK television. Temperatures of 35°C or above known in Japanese as “intensely hot days” - were recorded at 200 locations around Japan last Sunday, the JMA said, which is unusual for July but not unprecedented.