Japan’s Heat Stroke Alerts Are Empty Gestures: Kids Forced to Play in WBGT 34.6°C

I took this photo at my child's tennis club at Junior High School a couple of weeks ago. There was a heat stroke alert for Saitama Prefecture on the day, yet club wasn't canceled. I kept my daughter home and texted her teacher to tell her that my daughter wouldn't attend due to the heat stroke alert, hoping she would take a hint (to cancel club). She didn't. 

I was still worried about the other children so I went up to the tennis courts in the afternoon, BEFORE the hottest part of the day had even hit, and the WBGT meter at the courts was reading as you can see in the photo - 34.6. A WBGT reading of 34.6°C isn’t just “dangerous”, it is far beyond Japan’s official danger threshold. 

The teacher herself wasn't even there. So, I marched up to the air-conditioned staff room and called her out to the hall to have a chat. I showed her the photo in this post, with a dangerously high WBGT and a temperature above 40 degrees, whole-heartedly expecting that she too would be shocked and promptly call off club. She wasn't, and she didn't. 

The rest of the story is long and still ongoing. I am fighting for change. But further to the tragic death of Saimoni Vunilagi, I wanted to put it out there for the world to see, that in some places the "heat stroke alerts" in Japan are just empty gestures. They are often ignored and unenforced, and completely meaningless when children are still made to play sports outdoors, without sufficient breaks, in dangerous heat.