Public bathhouses, known as sento or onsen, have been a significant part of Japanese culture for centuries. They were initially established to provide a place where people could clean themselves since many homes in Japan did not have their own baths. Today, public bathhouses are still prevalent in Japan and are enjoyed by people of all ages. There are two main types of public bathhouses in Japan: sento and onsen. Sento is a traditional Japanese public bathhouse that uses regular water while onsen is a natural hot spring bathhouse that uses geothermal water from deep beneath the earth's surface. Despite their popularity, public bathhouses in Japan face several challenges such as declining customer numbers due to the availability of private showers at home and rising maintenance costs. The COVID-19 pandemic has also had a significant impact on the operations of public bathhouses in Japan with many establishments introducing new hygiene measures such as temperature checks, mandatory mask-wearing, and reduced capacity limits.