Fans attending a Koshien baseball game are particularly aware of the heat, grateful for sun hats as temperatures soar. The climate crisis is raising concerns about outdoor sports for schoolchildren, with predictions indicating that by 2060, severe summer heat could inhibit children's participation in sports. The situation raises alarms about the health and physical development of future generations in Japan. Vendors at the stadium thrive on selling refreshments to help spectators cope with the sweltering conditions, which have become integral to the baseball watching experience.
As Japan sweltered through unusually high early-July temperatures, concern is growing for the health of millions of schoolchildren who play outdoor sports, after a grim forecast outlined in a recent report.
If global heating continues at its current rate, it will pose an existential threat to sports at the grassroots level, raising the risk that future generations of children in Japan will be denied the exercise they need for their health and physical development.
As soon as 2060, summer temperatures will reach levels high enough to prevent children from taking part in extracurricular outdoor sports in most parts of the country, according to predictions by the National Institute for Environmental Studies and Waseda University in Tokyo.
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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