【Sauna temperature at public bath in west Japan changed to 140 C without permission】

The temperature setting of a sauna at a public bathhouse here was raised to 140 degrees Celsius by someone on Oct. 14, and the facility has reported the incident to the local police.

Although no customers complained of feeling ill, the temperature was 30 to 40 C higher than the normal setting at the public bath Miyakoyu in the Shiga Prefecture capital city of Otsu. The 38-year-old manager, Toshiki Hara, said, "This goes beyond a mere prank, as the temperature can be life-threatening."

Around midnight on Oct. 14, his wife, who was tending the facility, called him to say that customers were complaining that the sauna was too hot. When he checked the control panel near the ceiling of the men's changing room, he found that the temperature, normally set at 110 C for the men's sauna room and 100 C for the women's, were both set at 140 C.