Alarmed by sweltering heat in Okinawa classrooms that has caused some students to faint, a local high school student reached out to his peers over social media in mid-June, asking them about how air conditioners are used in their schools and what kind of problems they face.
The male student, who serves as the head of the student body association at a prefecture-run high school, had received 961 responses to his survey by late June, 800 of which described experiences of discomfort such as “I get sick with heat after P.E. class,” and “I feel very uncomfortable as my underwear becomes see-through as I sweat.”
According to a notice sent out by the prefectural board of education in 2016, prefecture-run schools should not run air conditioners if the room temperature is 27 degrees Celsius or lower, and teachers and students must work together to save power so that utility costs do not exceed the budget.