Breaking News English

Climate change is having an unforeseen [consequential / consequence] on language – the creation [of / on] new words. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has introduced a new item of vocabulary into the Japanese [rubicon / lexicon] . The neologism is the word "kokushobi," which [literally / laterally] means "cruelly hot day" or "harshly hot day". The JMA will use it when describing or forecasting days [as / when] temperatures are 40ºC or above. The JMA conducted [the / an] online poll of weather-based terminology. The questionnaire was [promoted / prompted] by the [scorching / scorched] weather experienced in Japan in [recent / recently] years. Website visitors selected their most preferred word. There were 478,000 responses. The word kokushobi garnered [near / nearly] 203,000 votes.

There has been record-breaking heat in Japan in the [passed / past] decade. The JMA reported days [of / at] 40ºC or above every year since 2018. In August 2025, the town [at / of] Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, recorded the highest temperature [ever / never] observed in Japan. The mercury [arose / rose] to 41.8ºC. There were a [further / future] nine days when temperatures were 40ºC. More records were broken in 2025. This was the hottest [year / yearly] since records began in 1898. Temperatures were 2.36ºC [over / above] average. The Mainichi newspaper wrote: "Tokyo recorded 25 days over 35ºC, compared with an annual average [on / of] just 4.5 days. Kyoto logged 52 days above [that / their] temperature, compared with an average of 18.5 days."