Leisure facilities across the nation conducted emergency inspections Tuesday, a day after a 7-year-old girl drowned after being sucked into an intake pipe whose protective grille had come off in a popular municipal pool in Fujimino, Saitama Prefecture.
The circular pool, which has a streaming current that pulls swimmers around in a loop, is nominally operated by Taiyo Kanzai, a company based in the city of Saitama under a contract with the Fujimino Municipal Government.
Employees at Spa Resort Hawaiians in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, and Tokyo Summerland in Akiruno said they were flooded with calls about the safety of their pools. Both said they conducted full-scale inspections, including the intake pipes and grilles.