[Heat stroke death as a cause of death]

Tokyo Medical Examiner's Office has approximately 13,000 inquest cases and 3,000 autopsies per year. Usually the winter season has much number of inquest cases owing to the elder' s death. In summer of 2007 and 2010, however, a number of inquest and autopsy cases increased rapidly and conspicuously. The cause was the increase of heat stroke death caused by intense heat. We often appealed "the prevention of the heat stroke" for the ministries and agencies from the standpoint of medical examiners. In the present paper, the situation of heat stroke deaths in Tokyo metropolitan area and the findings and diagnosis of heat stroke death were introduced.