TOKYO Japan 's weather agency said on Monday that last year was the hottest since records began, mirroring other nations as ever-rising greenhouse gas emissions fuel climate change. Worldwide, 2024 was expected to have been the warmest recorded, the U.N.'s weather and climate agency said last week, capping a decade of unprecedented heat and other types of extreme weather. Across Japan, the average temperatures from January through December were 1.48 degrees Celsius higher than the 1991-2020