School sports tournaments and club activities across Japan may need to be canceled for much of the summer by the 2060s as climate change pushes heat levels beyond safe limits, according to a joint study by the National Institute for Environmental Studies and Waseda University.
Millions of students across the country participate in school sports clubs, and thousands of heat-related illnesses have been reported almost every year since 2018.
Current Environment Ministry guidelines call for halting strenuous outdoor activities when the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) remains below 28 degrees Celsius for less than two hours (referred to as Heat Level 1) and stopping all activities, indoors or outdoors, when it remains below 31 C for less than two hours (referred to as Heat Level 2). The WBGT is a measure that combines heat, humidity, wind and sunlight.
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