A screenshot taken from a video warning people of heatstroke's dangers and created by yakiniku restaurant Horumon Shimata in the city of Maebashi.

       MAEBASHI -- A yakiniku barbecue restaurant in this east Japan city has used a YouTube video to warn of the dangers of heatstroke by showing how temperatures inside cars during summer can rise to levels high enough to roast beef.

       The video by yakiniku restaurant Horumon Shimata has been viewed over half a million times since being uploaded on Aug. 15.

       In it, the eatery tests whether rising daytime temperatures inside a car are enough to cook roast beef through. In the experiment, a cut of beef was left in a car in the city of Maebashi on a day when highs of 35 degrees Celsius were forecast. Temperatures inside the meat were initially 31.5 C, rising to 58 C in about 4 1/2 hours. The inside turned pink, and its surface browned.

       A screenshot taken from a video warning people of heatstroke's dangers and created by yakiniku restaurant Horumon Shimata in the city of Maebashi.

       In July, a boy attending day care who was left inside a school bus died in the southwest Japan prefecture of Fukuoka. The restaurant's Hiroki Shimada explained his aim in creating the video: "There have been repeated accidents where children left behind in cars die. I came up with the idea of appealing to people visually. I was wondering what, as a business dealing with meat, we can do to stop these accidents happening again."

       To avoid wasting food, Shimada also filmed himself eating the experiment's roast beef. "I cooked it while meeting certain standards to warn of heatstroke's dangers. As I said in the video, please don't mimic what I did," he said.

       (Japanese original by Tetsuya Shoji, Shibukawa Resident Bureau)

       Font Size S M L Print Timeline 0