Yen Depreciation and Tax Hike Force Public Baths To Raise Prices

If you plan to use a public bath in Japan, it may just cost you a little bit more to to do so.

The Mainichi Shimbun reported:

About half of "sento" or public baths across Japan are raising or plan to raise admission charges due to an April consumption tax hike and rising fuel costs triggered by the yen's depreciation. 

Public baths are essentially nonprofit operations for people without a bath at home, and have been subject to the nation's price control law which went into effect after World War II to fight inflation. Prefectural governors set admission after deliberations by councils and similar entities of each of Tokyo and 46 other prefectures. Leisure-oriented enterprises such as ''Super Sento'' and ''Day Trip Spa,'' however, are not bound by the law.

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