Rising temperatures across Japan are having an outsize impact on organized soccer as officials struggle to find ways to safely hold games.
On Wednesday, the Kanagawa Soccer League announced that its 12-team first division, which was scheduled to open the second half of its season on Aug. 6, would instead start on Sept. 3 “in consideration of how severe heat would affect the safety of participants and attendees.”
That competition, which sits on the seventh tier of the Japanese soccer pyramid, feeds into the second division of the regional Kanto Soccer League — and is one of many feeling the heat this summer.