Nishinomiya, Hyogo Pref. – A siren blares, cutting through the sticky August air as two teams bow in a show of respect before the biggest game of their young lives. As the air raid-like alarm begins to fade, players from Hachiman Commercial High School and Kendai Takasaki High School part and the typical sounds of Koshien Stadium become audible once again: vendors advertising sales of beer and snacks, the murmur of the crowd, the thud of baseballs hitting leather and the fluttering of thousands of hand fans as spectators desperately try to keep cool under the unrelenting afternoon sun. The mercury at 1:30 p.m., the time of the game’s first pitch on Day 3 of the National High School Baseball Championship, reads 36 degrees Celsius.
A thermometer placed in direct sunlight just above one of the concrete stadium’s plastic outfield seats, however, shows the extent of the danger: 45 C and climbing. Experienced fans bring a cushion to sit on — not for a softer seat, but to avoid burning their rear ends on the historic ballpark’s scorching dark-green bleachers. As human-caused climate change makes Japan’s summers ever hotter, one of the country’s most cherished summer traditions is under threat.
While organizers have enacted a number of measures in a bid to improve the safety of players and fans, some observers are now raising a question that once seemed unthinkable: Is Summer Koshien, as the tournament is commonly known, compatible with a rapidly warming world? 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.
Games are televised nationally and top players become household names before they ever suit up for a pro team. The tournament’s place within the fabric of Japanese society is such that one could argue it sits right alongside fireworks shows, yukata and Bon odori (dance festivals to honor ancestors) in the realms of summer traditions. Osaka Prefecture native Tatsuki Tanaka is a former high school player who follows the Spring and Summer Koshien tournaments religiously.
He carries fond memories of his time playing youth baseball and says that helps fuel his fandom for the high school game even now. Taking place during summer vacation and over the Bon holiday period, fans regularly pack Koshien Stadium, located a short train ride away from Osaka in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, filling in the seats not already occupied by each team’s boisterous cheering sections. 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.
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. Japan endured its hottest summer on record in 2025, rewriting the record books for a third consecutive year. This year, a later end to the rainy season meant cooler temperatures in early to mid-July, but temperatures in the high 30s and even “brutally hot” days — declared on days in which the mercury hits 40 C or higher — arrived in many parts of the country by late July.
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