The inn association at Dogo Onsen hot spring in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, submitted a petition to the city Monday seeking an end to the use of chlorine to disinfect the water used at the area's most famous bathhouse.
At issue is the chlorine the municipal government is using to treat the water at Dogo Onsen Honkan (Main Building), a three-story structure built in 1895. It is also famous as the setting for "Botchan," one of Natsume Soseki's best-known novels, and some 1 million people bathe there every year.
The Ehime Prefectural Government enacted an ordinance in October that makes it mandatory for public baths in the city to disinfect their water with chlorine to prevent any outbreak of legionnaire's disease.
The move came in response to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry safety guideline issued in the wake of an outbreak of the disease at a spa facility in Miyazaki Prefecture in July 2002.
Seven people died in that incident.
However, the inn association maintains that bathers have complained that the water at the bathhouse, which is managed by the city, smells like chlorine.
"Amid the nationwide hot spring boom, patrons are becoming increasingly attentive toward water quality," association head Shoji Oki said. "We would like the city to deal with the matter in a way that does not tarnish the culture of Dogo Onsen, which is considered one of Japan's oldest hot springs."
In its petition, the association pointed out that there has never been an outbreak of legionnaire's disease at Dogo Onsen, which does not recycle its bath water.