Cooling costs soar in Japan, 'lovebugs' swarm South Korea as East Asia bakes in high heat

As the monsoon belatedly dumps rains on South and Southeast Asia, the region's East is bracing for a sweltering summer, with unseasonable swarms of "lovebugs" early in South Korea and Japan's meteorological authorities cautioning that the coming months are going to be even hotter than last year.

A hot June looks set to be bested by a hotter July, a trajectory of climbing temperatures caused by the climate crisis and now exacerbated by the La Nina weather phenomenon, is likely to put pressure on health authorities to keep the eldest and poorest safe from the dangers of heatstroke and dehydration.

In Japan, a survey by home appliance manufacturer Panasonic Corp found that 40 per cent of people do not plan to use air conditioning this summer, a response apparently triggered by shrinking household budgets.

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The poll also revealed 10 per cent of Japanese have set out to "tolerate" the heat no matter what in the coming months, while a further 33 per cent said they would try not to use the cooling device - but expected to relent if the temperatures become unbearable.

Alarmingly, most those saying they would attempt to get through the summer without air conditioning were elderly who live on pensions and savings, leaving them highly vulnerable to heatstroke.

And cases are already beginning to show up, with 19 people between the ages of 14 and 91 admitted to hospitals across Japan on June 25, with one person reported to be in serious condition.

Temperatures hit records for the month on June 24, reaching 36.4 degrees Celsius (97.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in Chiba prefecture's Ichihara and Sano in Tochigi prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Central Tokyo baked at 34.7 degrees.

Those figures may be shy of the record monthly high of 40.2 degrees set in June 2022 in Isesaki, Gunma prefecture, but experts warn that summer heat is trending higher and the outlook is extremely worrying.

"Over the past few years, Japan has experienced a hotter summer almost every year, which is partly due to slowly evolving global warming," said Masahiro Watanabe, a professor of climate modelling and dynamics at the University of Tokyo's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute.

"Last summer, the El Nino effect was thought to have affected a large-scale circulation and pressure pattern over Japan, but the JMA is now forecasting that we will be affected by a La Nina that is intensified by subtropical high pressure," Watanabe said.

La Nina is a phenomenon characterised by colder ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific region that tend to cause flooding and drought in different parts of the region. In Japan, record 2022 temperatures were blamed on La Nina, which formed a "heat dome" over the archipelago. Nearly 16,000 people were admitted to hospitals for heatstroke and 164 people died in Tokyo alone.

The elderly accounted for most of the cases, with 76 per cent aged 70 or older, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Medical Examiner's Office. Nationwide, more than 1,000 people died every year between 2018 and 2022, except for the relatively cool summer of 2021.

In its prediction for the period between mid-June and mid-July, the agency's weather map is alarming. The entire Japanese archipelago, from the northern tip of Hokkaido to the most southerly islands of Okinawa prefecture, is marked in dark red, indicating there is 70 per cent or higher chance of above-normal temperatures.

The three-month forecast is only slightly more optimistic, with the southern islands still at 70 per cent or higher, while Kyushu, Shikoku and most of Honshu are at 50 per cent of above-average temperatures. Tohoku and Hokkaido get off relatively lightly, with just a 40 per cent likelihood of an unusually hot summer.

In an effort to reduce the death toll, the government introduced a new heatstroke alert system on April 24 that will issue warnings in 58 areas across the country when the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) heat index is predicted to be 33 or above.

The elderly, the young and those with disabilities are particularly at risk, the ministry of health warned, suggesting using airy clothing and chilled towels and ice to keep cool. Some local governments have been preparing "cold shelters," public halls and schools that are kept cool for people who have to work outside or are caught outdoors when temperatures become dangerously high.

"Over the next 10 years or so, one thing is for sure - Japan will experience more frequent heatwaves due to global warming," Tokyo University's Watanabe said.

"And the big concern in the climate science community is that average global temperatures will go beyond the 1.5-degree threshold - and that is likely to occur in the next decade."

In South Korea, the heatwave has started sooner than last year and Seoul residents are battling large invasions of subtropical bugs. Hikers in nearby hills in the capital have to navigate through black swarms of "lovebugs" earlier than usual this year.

"They started appearing about a month ago. When you hike, you have to breathe heavily, but there are so many bugs floating in the air ... I'm afraid they may get into my mouth or land on my skin," said Kim Hee-jin, a female hiker in her 20s, on Yonhap News TV.

"People cannot sit out there as the bugs swarm around. Some street merchants don't come out these days in the evening because of the bugs. When you eat your dinner, lovebugs fall into your meal," Park Chun-ja, a middle-aged woman, told the network.

Environment professor Lee Dong-kyu at Kosin University said lovebugs appear in great numbers as pesticides kill their predators and global heating provides temperatures which encourage reproduction.

"Car exhaust gases are similar to soil corrosion gases, fumes from cars and these attract lovebugs into the city," he said. "They also like heat. The heat in the city centre is higher than in the forest, so it keeps coming into the city."

The South Korean weather service said last Thursday that there were 2.7 heatwave days - days when the temperature rises to 33 degrees or higher - from June 1 to 25, more than four times the 30-year average of 0.6 days.

Since record-keeping began in 1907, Seoul experienced its earliest-ever tropical night with the lows remaining above 25 degrees on the night of June 21, a week earlier than the previous record registered last year.

The early heatwave has resulted in more than doubling the number of people suffering from heat illnesses to 268 over the past month, up from 116 during the same period last year. It also pushed up the prices of vegetables such as spring onions, spinach and carrots.

Heatwaves in the country subsided last week as the monsoon season set in, starting from the southern part of South Korea.

The southern island of Jeju received 50 millimetres of precipitation per hour - the largest rainfall in 80 years.

"The subtropical high pressure in the Northwest Pacific Ocean is expanding, and when this happens, water vapour comes in along the subtropical Northwest Pacific high pressure, increasing precipitation in this country," said Cho Kyung-sook, a senior official at the Korea Meteorological Administration.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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