NIKKO, Tochigi Pref. – Long after sunset, Motoaki Iijima’s illuminated greenhouse north of Tokyo glows like a lantern as the flower farmer harvests pink and orange gerberas, avoiding a daytime sun fierce enough to be deadly. As increasingly intense heat waves turn Japanese summers into survival tests, farmers — from flower and asparagus growers to egg producers — are rewriting the agrarian clock. Once-busy midday hours are now avoided as a mortal threat, replaced by after-dark work to protect crops, livestock and themselves.
Iijima, 36, converted his family’s centuries-old rice farm in the rural town of Nikko into a flower farm a decade ago. Three summers ago, after a part-time worker suffered heatstroke picking sunflowers in his greenhouse, he made a dramatic change. Outside temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius — increasingly common in his region — can push greenhouse interiors above 40 C.
Now, Iijima works outdoors through the night, stopping only when the morning sun turns punishing again. That’s when we can be outside,” he says, wiping sweat from his forehead under rows of halogen lights. It’s about protecting our bodies, and ultimately, our lives.” From rice farmers in Vietnam to winery workers in Spain, farmers across the globe are shifting work to cooler nighttime and early-morning hours as they try to beat more frequent and intense heat waves.
Japan is especially exposed: around 70% of its farmers are 65 or older, a population especially susceptible to heat stress, and high humidity amplifies the danger. A record 59 agricultural workers succumbed to extreme heat in 2024 in Japan, more than double the death toll in 2021. About 60% of farmers in their 20s to 50s surveyed by Japan Weather Association last year said they had either personally suffered heatstroke or knew someone who had.
Nearly 60% of farmers also shifted their working hours to earlier or later in the day. In 2024 alone, heat exposure cost Japan’s agricultural sector 926 million labor hours — time workers could not safely spend in the fields — according to Lancet Countdown, a research collaboration that tracks the health impacts of climate change. Across all sectors, labor hours lost to heat nearly doubled from the 1990s average, translating to roughly $46 billion in lost income, or about 1% of Japan’s gross domestic product.
To adapt, workers at Iijima’s farm now start work up to two hours earlier. One veteran worker, 68-year-old Miyoko Asada, arrives at the farm shortly after sunrise. A few towns away, poultry farmer Tetsuya Usuba faces a different crisis.
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