{"id":618306,"date":"2026-10-02T09:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/618306\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:18:08","slug":"influenza-cases-rising-in-japan-after-early-start-to-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/618306\/","title":{"rendered":"Influenza Cases Rising in Japan After Early Start to Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-series\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nippon.com\/en\/series\/japan-data\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan Data<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"c-cate c-cate0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nippon.com\/en\/articlelist.html?f=ncf-category&amp;s=Society\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Society<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"c-cate c-cate2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nippon.com\/en\/articlelist.html?f=ncf-category&amp;s=Health\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Health<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tOct 2, 2026<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tJapan\u2019s influenza season began in August in 2026, which is the second earliest start since 1999, and cases continue to rise as we enter the fall.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>  \t\t\t\t An Early Start to Flu Season<\/p>\n<p>The number of patient cases of influenza reported by Japanese medical institutions exceeded 1.00 per institution during August 17\u201323, or week 34 of 2026, indicating the start of an outbreak. Case counts were much higher than the same period in 2025 and have continued to rise through September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"photo_box_c_v2\" style=\"width: 500px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3082484.png\" class=\"fancybox\" rel=\"gallery\" data-libid=\"3082484\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3082484.png\" data-libid=\"3082484\" alt=\"Japan\u2019s Weekly Flu Cases per Medical Institution\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This marked the second earliest start to the influenza season since the current method of keeping records was introduced in 1999; only 2009 saw it kick off earlier. It was also the first time the outbreak threshold was reached in August since 2023, when an ongoing epidemic carried over from the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>Suggested reasons for the summer outbreak include the increase of foreign tourists from the southern hemisphere, where it is winter during Japan\u2019s summer, and dry indoor air caused by the widespread use of air conditioning. The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare is urging the public to take preventive measures, such as avoiding crowded places when feeling unwell, keeping rooms well ventilated, and washing hands with soap after spending time in public places.<\/p>\n<p>Data Sources<\/p>\n<p>(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo \u00a9\u00a0Photo AC.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-keywords\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <a href=\"\">influenza<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t <a href=\"\">disease<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t <a href=\"\">health<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan Data Society Health Oct 2, 2026 Japan\u2019s influenza season began in August in 2026, which is the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7191,134,13347,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-618306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-disease","tag-health","tag-influenza","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}