THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 16, 2023 at 18:39 JST
Family members play at a beach in Miyazaki city on Dec. 15. (Manabu Hiratsuka)
Much of Japan basked in summer temperatures despite the calendar showing there are only 10 days to go before Christmas.
As of 3:10 p.m., 21 observation points around the nation had clocked record high temperatures for December, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Dec. 16.
Unusually warm weather has persisted following the hottest summer in Japan on record.
The mercury reached a high of 26.2 degrees in Yokoshibahikari, Chiba Prefecture; 26 degrees in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture; and 25.5 degrees in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture.
Record temperatures were also observed Dec. 15 at 57 locations around Japan, including 25.6 degrees in Miyazaki city on the main southern island of Kyushu. The last time the day’s high there exceeded 25 degrees in December was 133 years ago.
Even Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture, facing the Sea of Japan in central Japan had a high of 26 degrees.
The forecast high for Dec. 17 is a sharp drop to 15 degrees in Tokyo.
Temperature hits a 100-year high in November in central Tokyo
November 8, 2023
Sweltering Japan suffered hottest September ever recorded
October 2, 2023
Japan blasted with record snowfalls, frigid temperatures
January 25, 2023
Early pressure patterns causing record-setting heat in Japan
June 30, 2022
Japan baking under hottest summer temps in recorded history
August 29, 2023
Japan swelters in its hottest July in more than a century
August 2, 2023
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
