Traditional public bathhouses (sento) in Japan face collapse due to rising energy costs linked to Middle East oil supply disruptions. These communal baths, already struggling with dwindling customers and aging ownership, are forced to shorten hours or close permanently.

Traditional public bathhouses in Japan are in deep water as soaring energy costs triggered by the Middle East oil supply disruptions threaten to extinguish the fires of a fading tradition, with some of them forced to shorten their hours or even shut their doors for good. Already struggling with a shrinking customer base and ageing owners without successors, the oil price surge is dealing a fresh blow to sento, as the communal baths are known in Japanese, with regulated pricing making it...