Record heat wave cooks Japan, straining power grid

Nearly 5,000 people have been hospitalized amid one of the severest heat waves Japan has seen in over a century, with 37 million people in and around Tokyo told to conserve electricity in response to record-breaking temperatures that are straining the power grid.

According to the country’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency, the number of people sent to hospitals for heatstroke and heat exhaustion is four times higher than during the same window last year, Japan’s Kyodo News reported.