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Climate change is an unforeseen consequence on language – the creation of new words. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has a new item of vocabulary into the Japanese lexicon. The neologism the word "kokushobi," which literally "cruelly hot day" or "harshly hot day". The JMA will it when describing or forecasting days when temperatures are 40ºC or above. The JMA an online poll of weather-based terminology. The questionnaire was by the scorching weather in Japan in recent years. Website visitors their most preferred word. There were 478,000 responses. The word kokushobi nearly 203,000 votes.

There been record-breaking heat in Japan in the past decade. The JMA days of 40ºC or above every year since 2018. In August 2025, the town of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, the highest temperature ever in Japan. The mercury to 41.8ºC. There were a further nine days when temperatures were 40ºC. More records were in 2025. This was the hottest year since records in 1898. Temperatures were 2.36ºC above average. The Mainichi newspaper wrote: "Tokyo 25 days over 35ºC, with an annual average of just 4.5 days. Kyoto 52 days above that temperature, compared with an average of 18.5 days."