Saunas Heating Up Rural Japan

Awesome!

Japan is experiencing a sudden renaissance in sauna culture, especially among the young.

They're sparking the building of new infrastructure, and even becoming centerpieces of travel.

Innovative sauna concepts are helping revitalize rural communities across Japan.

Let's take a closer look at this fascinating trend.

Millions of Japanese rely on bus service to get around.

But this isn't your average bus.

These people aren't going swimming.

The bus they're boarding is actually a sauna.

Extensively modified, this decommissioned commuter bus is now a mobile sauna, called the sabus.

Users can enjoy a relaxing sauna anywhere.

The bus preserves many aspects of its former life.

A thermometer hangs from a rider's strap.

Pressing the stop button delivers water to heated stones.

Users can go straight from a hot sauna to a cold mountain stream.

This is great!

I seldom visit rivers like this.

Compared to an indoor facility,
it's a completely different experience.

The sauna bus goes wherever there are sauna lovers.

It's the brainchild of Matsubara Arisa.

Matsubara has always had a love for buses.

Hyogo prefecture, widely known as the home of Himeji Castle, a World Heritage site.

As a bus company employee, she had witnessed the industry struggling due to shrinking local population in recent years.

Then another shock arrived.

With COVID, people don't commute
as often to work or school.

That hurt demand for bus services.

At one point, riders almost disappeared.

I felt something had to be done.

She set out to use a decommissioned bus to build a completely new intra-company business venture.

Buses are mobile.
They can carry lots of people.

That makes them ideal
for nature tourism and leisure outings.

A mobile sauna
was the most interesting concept.

Matsubara insisted that the converted bus retain the look and feel of a familiar commuter vehicle.

And users simply love it.

Requests are pouring in from companies and event organizers wanting to offer a unique experience.

We wanted to use the sauna concept
to extend our brand beyond Hyogo.

Now more people are aware
of our brand.

This sauna bus service is helping
to enhance the company's image.

An enormous number of vacant houses is a pressing problem in today's Japan.

There are approximately 8.5 million such homes, and their number is growing.

But one man is working to change that.

Just an hour from Tokyo on the super express, Nasu is a popular second home area located in Tochigi prefecture.

But vacant properties are on the rise here due to the aging of the owners and other factors.

What if there were a way to add value to these vacant homes?

What if they were renovated with new wooden decks and, you guessed it, saunas with attractive designs?

Improvements like this are enhancing the appeal of these properties for prospective young holidaymakers.

Koda Yasutaka is the brains behind the project.

He's an expert at making vacant properties commercially viable again.

And there is another effort under way to address the challenge faced by rural communities sourcing the cedar lumber used in saunas.

All the lumber is grown
and sourced locally.

To us, that was very important.

Demand for local lumber peaked way back in 1960.

Since then, it's been on the decline, and cheap foreign lumber has reduced the incentive to maintain local forest resources.

Miya Katsuhiko's lumber business was founded more than a century ago.

He provided cedar grown in Nasu to support the sauna renovation project.

Japan relies on cheaper imports
for 65% of its lumber.

We have to manage
our forest resources carefully.

I'm worried that otherwise,
forest productivity will decline.

That's why we were happy
to participate in this project.

We welcome businesses
that use local wood.

After sourcing the lumber from a local supplier, a design company with special capabilities was enlisted.

Their digital wood processing equipment is playing a key role in adding value to vacant properties.

Designs can be digitized and executed at any scale, quickly and easily.

With cost in the $20,000 range, the automated system is affordable, and can be adapted to existing equipment.

This makes it possible to produce saunas entirely locally.

Many rural areas
have this same problem.

I think it would be interesting
to apply this approach elsewhere.

I'd like to see local production
and consumption of lumber...

applied to even small projects.

Solving local challenges with local resources.

Saunas fit perfectly into this picture.

Adding a sauna can transform
a vacant property.

And using local lumber creates
more work for local companies.

Renovation work stimulates
the local economy.

We're hoping this economic activity
becomes a driver for revitalization.

Japan has roughly 20,000 towns where the number of residents age 65 and over exceeds 50%.

With so many aged residents, one hamlet in Okayama was facing an uncertain future.

But now a sauna is helping to attract youthful new energy.

Nakaute is a mountain community of thirty people living in twenty households.

The local economy is agricultural.

Most young people leave to find work in the cities.

Nearly all those who remain are elderly.

In 2019, a sauna was built in the hamlet, retrofitted into a 110 year-old traditional earthen storehouse.

Up to ten people can share this cozy space.

Young people travelling through the region can sit with local residents, interact, and communicate.

The sauna is the creation of Maruyama Kosuke.

Drawn by the beautiful natural setting, Maruyama came to the area six years ago to help revitalize the local economy, and ended up staying.

He used his experience as an architect to build his kura sauna.

He also operates a guest house where visitors can stay while exploring the hamlet's scenic beauty.

The winters are extremely cold.

But the winter scenery
is very beautiful.

I imagined diving into snow
after a sauna.

And I saw the sauna
as a space for communication.

I wanted to bring that to this area.
That's why I built my sauna.

I'm convinced saunas can attract people...

who would usually never visit
mountain hamlets like this.

Nakaute residents enjoy the sauna, and young visitors can connect with local culture on a deeper level.

It was great to really talk
with local people.

Some residents regarded the sauna concept with skepticism at first.

Today, it's an important part of the community.

Osaka Saburo is in charge of keeping the sauna at an optimum temperature.

I don't think of this as a job.

It's quite a run-down old building.

But it's very rewarding to see
how much visitors enjoy it.

Ute Nobuyki is a resident and occasional hunter.

The number of visitors surprised me.
Young people see things differently.

This is the kind of thing
rural communities need to survive.

Maruyama realized his dream of attracting young people to the community with a sauna.

His next goal is to preserve local culture by passing it on to new residents.

This is a plant called mitsumata, a raw material for traditional Japanese washi paper.

This area once played a key role in its cultivation.

Maruyama holds an event to show how it's harvested.

It's not easy,
but really interesting.

Ute Shinobu shows visitors how it's done.

Even one more young person
makes a difference.

They bring a different perspective
and make us feel optimistic.

Maruyama hopes his sauna will be the start of a widening circle of human interaction and relationships.

I saw the sauna as a starting point
for transmitting local culture.

What we did today feels like a start.

I think my concept is starting
to connect with visitors.

Our motivation comes
from helping the community...

and working with residents.

The people who live here
are what motivates us.

I hope that energy will help us
achieve even more in the future.

Taking off your clothes, and warming yourself in a sauna.

Concealed in this simple act is the potential to connect people across barriers of age and culture.

The dreams and hard work of people who love saunas could very well make life a little cozier for all of us.