OSAKA - Japan's traditional neighborhood public baths are struggling with rising fuel, labor and operating costs, but unlike most businesses they cannot freely raise prices because admission fees remain regulated under a postwar price-control law introduced in 1946.
The Price Control Ordinance was enacted to curb inflation after World War II by imposing maximum prices on designated goods and services and prohibiting transactions above those limits. Around 10,000 items, including rice and coal, were initially subject to controls, but the list gradually shrank as economic conditions changed.
Today, ordinary public bath admission fees are the only remaining category regulated under the ordinance.
As a result, operators of traditional sento baths, excluding facilities such as large commercial super sento complexes, cannot determine their own basic admission prices. Instead, prefectural governors set maximum fees, and charging above the permitted amount is illegal.
The highest current ceiling is 600 yen in both Osaka and Tokyo, while Hyogo's maximum is 570 yen and Kyoto's is 550 yen.
Shiga Prefecture is preparing to raise its ceiling as operators face mounting financial pressure. A prefectural council has recommended increasing the adult admission price by 60 yen to 550 yen from October 1, citing higher personnel and fuel costs and the need to help businesses remain viable.
The planned increase has drawn attention at Kagurayu, a public bath in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, that has served local residents for nearly 90 years.
Regular customers said they understood the financial difficulties facing the business, although some expressed surprise at the size of the 60 yen increase.
The operators have tried to keep expenses down by reducing their reliance on heavy oil and burning wood and other materials to heat the bathwater. The work can be physically demanding, particularly during summer, when temperatures around the boiler can become intense.
Switching back to greater use of heavy oil would more than double fuel expenses, the operators said. Savings on fuel are instead used to cover other costs, allowing the bath to continue operating.
The couple running the facility also spend more than an hour cleaning the bathing area after closing each day.
Despite such efforts, they cannot simply charge customers more when expenses rise. "If we take any more, it becomes illegal," one operator said of the prefectural price ceiling.
The reason public baths remain regulated is closely connected to their historical role in public health.
When the price-control system was introduced, many Japanese homes did not have private baths. Authorities regarded access to affordable communal bathing as essential for maintaining hygiene and preventing illness, making public bath fees different from the prices of ordinary commercial services.
Legal experts say that reasoning continued even as other goods and services were removed from the price-control system. Allowing bath operators to set unrestricted prices could potentially make bathing inaccessible to people without facilities at home, undermining the public-health function of sento.
Japan's public bath industry, however, has changed dramatically.
The number of sento nationwide peaked in 1968 at around 18,000. As bathrooms became standard in private homes and operators increasingly struggled to find successors, the number has fallen to less than one-tenth of that level.
With their traditional public-health role declining, some municipalities and operators are trying to give sento new functions as community spaces.
Kyoto introduced a program this fiscal year under which elementary school-age children and younger can enter participating public baths free of charge when accompanied by an adult aged 18 or older.
Parents say the measure lowers the cost of family outings while giving children opportunities to interact with people outside their household and learn public manners.
Some customers said sento offer children an unusual environment in which regular patrons may remind them not to run or break bathing etiquette, creating interactions between generations and between people who might otherwise never speak.
In Osaka, some operators are going further by organizing events designed to bring strangers together outside the bathing area.
Asahi Onsen has spent about 10 years developing activities that encourage people to enjoy the facility even when they are not bathing. One event uses bath pails and deck brushes in a game resembling curling, encouraging participants who do not know one another to play and communicate.
The operator said such encounters reflect the traditional character of neighborhood baths, where customers visiting at the same time often become familiar with one another and sometimes socialize after bathing.
Public baths are also attracting renewed attention as potential infrastructure during disasters.
One Osaka bath replaced the upper part of its chimney with lightweight stainless steel instead of concrete as part of renovations intended to reduce earthquake risks. The operator had previously seen a chimney at a relative's public bath damaged during the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
Osaka City has also reached an agreement with a public bath association to help secure bathing opportunities during emergencies.
Public baths have similarly been opened free of charge to disaster victims when normal bathing facilities became unavailable.
Experts in public health say communal baths can help maintain hygiene when people cannot use bathrooms at home while also providing spaces where evacuees and other residents can continue talking and interacting during prolonged periods of disruption.
At the same time, some specialists question whether the original justification for strict price regulation remains as strong as it once was. Only a small percentage of Japanese households now lack their own bathing facilities, sharply reducing the sento's traditional role in preventing disease and maintaining basic hygiene.
That has prompted debate over what public purpose sento should serve in the future and whether government support, including subsidies and tax benefits, should increasingly be tied to new roles such as community building, disaster preparedness and family support.
Ideas being explored include using baths for events that strengthen ties between parents and children, incorporating sento into neighborhood revitalization projects, and providing temporary child care so parents can take a break and bathe while children are supervised.
The challenge is no longer simply preserving public baths as they existed in the past, but finding ways for them to evolve while retaining their place in Japanese culture and local communities.
Source: KTV NEWS
