Study: By 2060, Outdoor Summer Sports May Be Unsafe For Japan's Kids; Baseball And Rugby Teams Already Feeling The Heat
The tens of thousands of fans filing into Koshien baseball stadium near Osaka are more grateful than usual for the freebies handed out at the entrance: floppy sun hats bearing the logo of the Hanshin Tigers, the baseball team they are about to watch play their rivals from Tokyo, the Yomiuri Giants, on a clammy July evening. Spectators in seats in the steeply tiered bleachers waft uchiwa fans to cool their faces while vendors skipping up and down rows of steps do a roaring trade in cold beer and soft drinks. Watching Japanese baseball at Koshien at this time of the year has never been for the faint-hearted: the humidity and heat are as much a part of the occasion as strikes and stolen bases.
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Early next month, the Tigers will vacate Koshien to make way for 49 teams of teenage boys competing in the prestigious summer high school baseball championships, watched by supporters from across the country and by millions live on TV. With just weeks to go before the opening pitch, the 15-day contest promises to be a battle of stamina as well as skill due to the extreme heat.
Organisers of school sports competitions are already taking action to protect young athletes, including rules halting or suspending games when temperatures soar, and changing the location or date of tournaments. Other measures include shorter match times, regular drinks breaks, shaded rest areas and even ice baths. Last year the national high school football tournament was moved to Hokkaido – Japan’s northernmost prefecture – for girls and to Fukushima, also in the north, for boys.
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Researchers at the environmental institute based their scenario for school sports on weather data across 842 locations in Japan over the past 12 years. In a projections for the 2060s to 2080s that supposes fossil fuel use will continue at current rates, six out of eight regions will experience temperatures requiring the cancellation of school sports club activities, while four regions would have to suspend all outdoor activities, the report says. Five would still need to limit vigorous exercise even if CO2 emissions are significantly reduced, it added. Takahiro Oyama, a researcher in biometeorology at the institute’s Center for Climate Change Adaptation, says the intense summer heat would make high-intensity outdoor sports “increasingly difficult”, particularly in urban locations and regions in the south of the country.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/17/japan-heat-childrens-summer-sport-restrictions-global-heating