Photo/Illutration The purple area on the map indicates expected daytime highs of 35 degrees or higher in an August 5 forecast by the Japan Meteorological Agency. (Captured from the JMA website)

Japan sweltered in dangerously high temperatures on Aug. 5, with thermometers in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, marking the highest ever.

A record 41.8 degrees was observed at 2:26 p.m. in the city, which is in the far western part of Kanto, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

It was the highest temperature ever recorded in Japan.

Parts of western Tokyo came close. Ome reached 40.4 degrees and Hachioji hit 40.3 degrees. It was the first time this season that temperatures exceeded 40 degrees in Tokyo.

Warnings were issued for 44 prefectures under the heatstroke alert system, in which members of the public are urged to exercise extreme caution such as finding an air conditioned space to rest in.

Other locations in the Kanto region were expected to suffer similarly uncomfortable temperatures the same day.

Forecasted highs included 41 degrees in Maebashi, 40 degrees in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, and 39 degrees in Saitama and Chichibu, also in Saitama Prefecture, and in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture.

Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture was expected to hit 38 degrees. Other predicted highs for Aug. 5 included 37 degrees in central Tokyo, 36 degrees in Sendai, Nagoya and Osaka, and 35 degrees in Fukuoka.

Forecasters urge vigilance because warm, humid air moving into the Kanto and Kinki regions may bring severe weather conditions such as high winds and localized heavy rain.

In Hokkaido and Tohoku, a passing low-pressure system may cause heavy rainfall, meteorologists warned.

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