Japan Coins 'Kokushobi' for 40C-Plus Days After Hottest Summer on Record

Japan's Meteorological Agency unveiled a new official term — kokushobi, meaning 'cruelly hot' or 'brutally hot' — for days topping 40 degrees Celsius, after the nation endured its hottest summer on record. The linguistic shift is the clearest sign yet that Japanese institutions are treating extreme heat as a permanent feature of the climate.