A family that has run a public bathhouse for 138 years says rising fuel costs tied to the war in Iran could force it to close. Yoshiko Kodama, 87, says her Nagano sento uses about 2,000 liters of heavy oil a month and that global oil prices have jumped as much as 50 percent for some operators. Local rules cap admission fees at roughly 500 yen, limiting owners' ability to raise prices. The result is a wave of closures and deep strain on services that serve isolated and elderly residents.

A local tradition under pressure

Yoshiko Kodama lights the boiler at her family’s bathhouse each afternoon. She has done the work for more than six decades. Her sento has stood through wars, emperors and major earthquakes. Now the cost of fuel threatens to end it.

Kodama said the boiler takes as much as 2,000 liters of heavy oil a month. She said recent price moves tied to the conflict in Iran have pushed costs to a level she can't absorb without changing the price of entry. "If oil prices continue to go up, I’ll really have to quit," she said.

Kodama’s story isn't unique. Longtime neighborhood bathhouses, which once served nearly every Japanese community, have been shrinking for decades. Many closed because homeowners installed private tubs, and fewer people want the work of running a sento. The remaining bathhouses now rely heavily on older customers for daily business.

Why fuel matters

Most regional sento heat their water with heavy oil. In Tokyo, some bathhouses use city gas, but outside large cities oil is the default. Operators say the war in Iran set off a rise in global crude and refined fuel prices.

The Japan National Sento Association has estimated some owners are facing cost increases of as much as 50 percent.

That spike matters because many prefectural governments treat sento like public welfare infrastructure. They cap admission fees. In many places the cap sits around 500 yen, which the Japan National Sento Association and multiple local reports note is roughly US$3. In Shizuoka Prefecture, the ceiling is 520 yen.

Mastheads

Owners say they can't freely pass the new fuel premiums on to customers. For example, a long-established bathhouse near Mount Fuji reported heavy oil moving from about 100 yen per liter to 130 yen. Operators calculated that to meet that cost, admission would need to rise to at least 650 yen, a jump customers said they couldn't afford. Faced with that gap, some operators decided to stop operating.

Closures and community loss

Closures already are appearing across regions. A well-known onsen in Aomori with a history stretching back decades announced it will end operations later this spring after years of serving more than 200 visitors a day. Managers blamed weekly spikes in heavy oil and rising maintenance costs for the decision.

Users and local residents described the closures as painful. For many elderly patrons, the sento is more than a place to bathe. It's a social hub where people meet, talk and check on one another. Operators who charge below the fee cap often do so to keep the bathhouse affordable for seniors who depend on it.

Global conflict, local consequences

The immediate cause of the price surge is the fighting in the Middle East. The International Energy Agency’s Executive Director, Fatih Birol, said the scale of the current energy shock combines elements of the oil crises of the 1970s and the 2022 energy shock tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Birol warned that damage to energy facilities in the Middle East and continued instability will have a worldwide ripple effect.

Those ripples reach small businesses like sento. Fuel is a major line item for operators. When fuel costs jump quickly, margins evaporate. Local price caps block quick revenue responses. The mismatch leaves owners absorbing losses, delaying maintenance, or closing.

Economically, the strains on sento illustrate a wider pattern. Energy shocks raise operating costs for services that rely on heat and power. Small, low-margin businesses are most exposed. When they close, communities lose jobs and services. In Japan’s case, that loss hits older residents hardest because sento are concentrated in neighborhoods with aging populations.

Politically, the problem links distant geopolitics to domestic welfare decisions. Governments set price caps on the basis that sento serve a social need. Those caps limit market flexibility in a sudden supply shock. Local officials now face a trade-off: keep fees capped and accept closures, or raise the cap and shift more cost onto users, many of whom are elderly.

The International Energy Agency’s warning that no country will be free from the crisis points to a shared policy dilemma. Central and local governments worldwide must weigh whether and how to support vulnerable services that can't absorb sudden energy cost increases.

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Katsuragi Onsen, founded in 1968 and visited by more than 200 people a day, posted that operations will end on May 31.

This article was created with AI assistance.