World News for Students of English

14-05-2026 07:00

Japan is experiencing such extreme heat that the national weather agency had to introduce a new word to describe it. The term is kokushobi, which translates to cruelly hot day. It is used for days when temperatures exceed 40 °C.

Japan has a long history of creating beautiful, poetic words for weather, like specific terms for rain or the cool air under cherry blossoms. However, kokushobi is different because it sounds dangerous and overwhelming. The word was chosen through a public poll of nearly 500,000 people because 2025 was the hottest summer in Japan’s history. In fact, more than a third of all 40°C days in the last 150 years have happened just in the last three years.

Meteorologists are worried because the combination of high heat and high humidity is very dangerous, especially for the elderly. In big cities, the heat island effect makes it even worse. This new word is not just a description; it is a serious warning for people to protect themselves and take climate change seriously.

Difficult words: exceed (to be more than a particular number or amount), poetic (having a beautiful or emotional quality, like a poem), poll (a study where many people are asked the same question to find out what they think).

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