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SCMP’s Asia desk

Customers of Ikesu Onsen, a traditional Japanese bathhouse in Tsushima in Aichi prefecture, have had to delay their daily dips due to the Iran war.
The sento, or public bathhouse, has been forced to push back its opening time by an hour since late March because of an unstable supply of fuel oil, according to Kyodo.
Monthly delivery has been halved from about a tonne, leading the number of customers of the family-run 97-year-old sento to fall to around 10 per day.
“It’s a major blow,” its 57-year-old operator, Atsuko Matsui, told the news agency. “If we are told [by the supplier] ‘this amount at this price,’ we have no choice but to accept it.”
Like Iketsu, sentos across Japan have had to shorten opening hours or close temporarily as the global energy crisis bites.
Japan, which imports over 90 per cent of its crude oil from the Middle East, is facing shortages since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US-Israeli air strikes in March.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has repeatedly said that Japan has enough oil, with supply secured into next year. On Monday, she said she did not see the need for a fresh package of measures, saying the government still had sufficient funds set aside to pay ⁠for fuel subsidies, according to a Reuters report.

“But developments in the Middle East are hard to foresee. We’ll be vigilant to the impact on Japan’s economy and take necessary action flexibly,” she said.
According to the Japan National Sento Association, about 30 per cent of sentos still rely on traditional oil or gas boilers to heat their bath water.
Association members voiced their worries to lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on April 9, the Japan Forward news website reported.
Heavy oil prices had climbed to 1.4 to 1.5 times their previous levels, they said, asking the government for aid.
Revenues could not keep up with these costs, making it difficult for sentos to stay in business, they said. Sentos are considered public welfare facilities whose fees are capped by prefectural governors under anti-inflation controls introduced after World War II.
Larger sentos that fall under a separate “other public baths” category in Japanese law have more leeway. The Takasago Onsen hotel in the northern Hokkaido region is considering raising bathing prices for daytime visitors by 100 yen (63 US cents), according to a report by the Financial Times.
Fuel prices have shot up 20 per cent, adding 300,000 yen to monthly costs. “It’s frightening, really,” the hotel’s president, Shigeyuki Takasaki, told the business newspaper.


Sento takings could fall to about 27 billion yen this year from 49 billion yen in 2025, Japan Forward reported.
Some sento operators have decided to throw in the towel. Katsuragi Onsen in the northeastern city of Aomori has announced it will close at the end of May.
“Prices for fuel oil are rising every week and show no signs of stabilising,” bathhouse head Masayoshi Yamaguchi, 57, told Kyodo. “We have plenty of customers, but at this rate, we simply cannot keep our heads above water.”
He warned that his would not be the only business to close. “I haven’t thought about the future yet. Right now, I’m doing what I can,” he told the Financial Times. “There are places talking about stopping.”
The number of bathhouses in Japan fell to 1,562 in 2025, 90 per cent off its peak in 1968, according to the sento association’s data. If the decline continues at the current rate of 5 per cent, the number could fall to below 1,000 within the next decade.


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Japan

A customer washes his hair  at a public bathhouse in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Traditional Japanese bathhouse Ikesu Onsen in Tsushima, Aichi prefecture. Photo: Kyodo

Japan warned of ‘hellish summer’ as energy fears mount

People walk under a parasol in Shizuoka, Japan, where temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, on April 11. Photo: Kyodo

People in Tokyo, Japan, walk amid unseasonably warm weather on April 11. Photo: Kyodo

People stand at a crossing near Akihabara Electric Town in Tokyo. Japan could be forced to implement measures such as planned power outages if the Iran war continues, analysts say. Photo: EPA

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is moored at a LNG berth in Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture on April 8. Photo: AFP

Japan aims to build world’s largest wind farm. Can it power on by 2035?

A wind turbine electric generator for renewable energy in Sakata town, Japan. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike meets reporters at the metropolitan government headquarters last year. Photo: Kyodo

Wind turbines on the coast in Rumoi, Hokkaido, Japan. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Will South Korea or Japan develop a nuclear deterrent of their own?

An nuclear-capable Minuteman III ICBM sits inside a silo at an air force base in the US last year. Photo: US Air Force/Handout

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi speaks to members of the media at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday. Photo: Getty Images/AFP 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (middle) and his daughter Kim Ju-ae inspect the test-firing of a ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on April 19. Photo: KCNA/KNS/AFP

Visitors look at a South Korea-developed innovative small modular reactor model during this year’s International Nuclear Energy Expo in Busan, South Korea on Wednesday. Photo: EPA

Iran war makes green hydrogen viable in Asia as fossil fuel prices soar

A couple looks at a model of the entire industrial chain of green hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, and oil displayed at the China Energy Engineering Group pavilion in Boao on March 25. Photo: Xinhua

Hydrogen storage tanks stand at a mega green hydrogen plant in Kuqa, Xinjiang. Photo: VCG/Getty Images

A green hydrogen plant built by Spanish company Iberdrola in Puertollano. Photo: AFP

Visitors learn about the green hydrogen product during the Energy Storage International Conference and Expo in Beijing on April 2. Photo: Xinhua

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“Sentos” have cut operating hours and welcomed fewer customers, with some deciding to fold amid the energy crisis


“Sentos” have cut operating hours and welcomed fewer customers, with some deciding to fold amid the energy crisis.


Japan’s bathhouses struggle to stay afloat as oil prices spike, supply dwindles

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}“Sentos” have cut operating hours and welcomed fewer customers, with some deciding to fold amid the energy crisis

“Sentos” have cut operating hours and welcomed fewer customers, with some deciding to fold amid the energy crisis