Bathhouses feeling the financial pinch of the Iran conflict

The other day I was writing about rising food prices in Japan, and how even plastic packaging is getting more expensive because key materials are becoming harder to source. I read another story yesterday via the New York Times which shows that it's more than just food being impacted!

In Nagano, an 87-year-old woman is facing the possible closure of her family's sento after 138 years in operation, and it's not because customers have disappeared, but because of oil. The bathhouse relies on oil to heat the water, and as we're all aware at this point, prices have jumped as a result of the conflict.

As the article mentioned, sento can't easily raise their prices since fees are capped, and many of the regulars are elderly locals who depend on these spaces as part of their daily routine. For some, it's their main point of social contact, which makes the situation all the more dire.