A total of 52,017 people were admitted to various hospitals across Japan due to heatstroke including 4,962 last week alone, according to a preliminary report by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency released on Tuesday.
Of all the cases reported from May 31 to September 5, 168 people died shortly after arrival at hospital, the agency said.
An agency official urged people to take precautions as intense heat is expected to continue, mentioning cases of groups of students falling ill at public secondary schools in Chiba and Shizuoka prefectures yesterday.
According to the agency's report, patients diagnosed with severe symptoms made up 3.4 per cent of the total, while 35.2 per cent showed moderate symptoms and 57.8 per cent had mild symptoms.
By age bracket, people aged 65 and above accounted for 46.6 per cent of cases, while by prefecture, Tokyo had the largest number of patients for the entire reporting period, at 4,055, as well as during last week, at 390.