Highlights: Japanese worried as their cherry trees bloom earlier and earlier in the year. Compared to the 1950s, their flowering is beginning… ten days earlier. Ultimately, global warming could be fatal to them, according to Daisuke Sasano of the Meteorological Agency. “What threatens these trees the most,” he explains, “is not springs or summers that are too hot, but winters that are not cold enough.” Last year, the sublime spectacle of the red glow of the maples was cut short due to an ephemeral autumn.

While it's not yet April, the cherry trees are already blooming in Japan. They do it faster and faster throughout the season. Compared to the 1950s, their flowering is beginning…

Japanese worried as their cherry trees bloom earlier and earlier in the year

While it's not yet April, the cherry trees are already blooming in Japan. They do it faster and faster throughout the season. Compared to the 1950s, their flowering now begins around ten days earlier. And the experts are clear: it is due to rising temperatures. Nature's calendar is disrupted and even, ultimately, the flowering of the Japanese's favorite tree is threatened.

A man cycles past a cherry blossom tree in a park in the Edogawa district of Tokyo, in 2023 (illustrative photo). AFP - PHILIP FONG

By: RFI Follow

With our correspondent in Tokyo,

Bruno Duval

All this is taken very seriously in the Japanese archipelago. Compared to the last century, the average temperature has increased by 1.35° in

Japan

. From now on, therefore, the cherry trees bloom from mid-March and no longer at the beginning of April.

Ultimately, global warming could be fatal to them, according to Daisuke Sasano of the Meteorological Agency. “

What threatens these trees the most,”

he explains,

“is not springs or summers that are too hot, but winters that are not cold enough. Because the winter frost sends the cherry trees the signal that it is time for them to wake up and start preparing their buds for spring. Without this cold trigger, cherry trees spend the entire winter sleeping. And then, in spring, due to lack of buds, they do not flower.

Cherry trees in danger: these Tokyoites are in shock. “

All this makes me infinitely sad

,” confides a passerby. “

The cherry blossoms are so beautiful... Like all Japanese, I couldn't do without them

,” adds a man. “

They are already flowering even though it snowed just yesterday. For sure, it will disturb them

,” concludes another resident of the capital.

Already last year, the sublime spectacle of the red glow of the maples was cut short, due to an ephemeral autumn, after a scorching summer like never before, and endless, with heat peaks until October and even November. Some cherry trees even bloomed briefly, disconcerted by this weather which had become so improbable.

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Japanese worried as their cherry trees bloom earlier and earlier in the year

Japanese worried as their cherry trees bloom earlier and earlier in the year

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