Japan’s Summer Koshien baseball tradition comes face-to-face with new climate reality
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Each summer, 49 high school teams from across Japan do battle over 2½ weeks in a bid for baseball immortality and it all happens inside a 102-year-old ballpark that is as revered as the nation’s thousands of shrines and temples.
The tournament has a unique power to draw in even nonbaseball fans by evoking images of youth through the exuberance and innocence of the players, who give it their all in what serves as the high point of their high school athletic careers.
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But for the players, coaches, cheering squads and thousands of fans who attend each year, one unsettling truth is becoming increasingly clear: soaring temperatures caused by climate change are making Koshien increasingly uncomfortable and, at times, downright dangerous.
“We brought plenty of frozen drinks and cold towels,” mother Eri Ishijima said as she fed shaved ice to her children on Day 3 of the tournament.
Like many fans, Ishijima and her three children left their seats to take shelter in the concourse, where large air conditioning units were a popular spot for people to get some relief from the heat.
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