Japan's heat wave drives up food prices, prison inmate dies

A woman uses a portable fan on the street during a heatwave in Tokyo, Japan July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

TOKYO (Reuters) - Vegetable prices in Japan are spiking as much as 65 percent in the grip of a gruelling heat wave, which drove temperatures on Wednesday to records in some areas hit by flooding and landslides, hampering clean-up and recovery efforts.

As many as 65 people died in the week to July 22, up from 12 the previous week, government figures show, while a prisoner in his forties died of a heat stroke in central Miyoshi city, amid what medical experts called an "unprecedented" heat wave.