Tokyo, Japan - Japan’s increasingly intense summer heat is forcing farmers to rethink one of agriculture’s oldest routines: working during daylight hours. Across parts of the country, farmers are shifting harvesting, feeding and other physically demanding tasks to nighttime and early morning in an effort to protect workers, crops and livestock from dangerous heat.
Flower farmer Motoaki Iijima, north of Tokyo, began harvesting at night after a part-time worker suffered heatstroke while working inside his greenhouse. When outdoor temperatures rise above 35°C, temperatures inside greenhouses can exceed 40°C, making daytime work particularly hazardous. Iijima now works through the night and starts some tasks earlier in the morning, describing the change as necessary to protect workers’ health and lives.
The challenge is particularly serious in Japan because its agricultural workforce is rapidly ageing. Around 70% of Japanese farmers are aged 65 or older, increasing their vulnerability to heat stress. In 2024, 59 agricultural workers died from extreme heat, more than twice the number recorded in 2021, according to data cited by Reuters.
Heat is also affecting livestock production. Poultry farmer Tetsuya Usuba has changed his chickens’ routine so that thousands of hens begin eating at around 2:30 a.m., before temperatures become oppressive. Fans, water sprayed onto barn roofs and other cooling measures have also been introduced, yet sudden heat spikes continue to cause bird deaths.
The economic consequences are significant as well. The Lancet Countdown estimates that heat exposure cost Japan’s agricultural sector about 926 million labour hours in 2024. Across Japan’s economy, heat-related lost labour amounted to an estimated $46 billion in lost income, highlighting how extreme heat is becoming both an environmental and economic challenge.
Japan introduced new workplace measures in 2025 requiring heatstroke reporting and emergency response procedures, while authorities are also promoting smart-farming technologies, including drones and robots, to reduce workers’ exposure to extreme temperatures.
The shift toward nighttime farming is not unique to Japan. Farmers in other heat-affected regions, including parts of Asia and Europe, are also moving agricultural work to cooler hours as heatwaves become more frequent and intense. What was once an unusual working schedule is increasingly becoming a practical adaptation to a changing climate.
For Ecosphere News, this development offers a striking example of how climate change is moving beyond weather records and directly changing the way people produce food. When farmers must work under artificial lights after sunset simply to avoid dangerous daytime heat, the impacts of a warming climate become impossible to ignore.
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