Changes in the Disqualification Clause of Legal Regulations for Public Baths

KAWABATA Miki
Abstract:
In this report I trace changes, from the Meiji Era to the early Showa Era, in the disqualification clause in legal regulations for public baths in Japan. In particular, I investigate Tokyo municipal legal regulations for public baths and the national Public Bath Law. The first disqualification clause for public baths in Tokyo appeared in 1920; it excluded from public baths patients shunned by others and unsupervised old people and children. In Tokyo, the disqualification clause next appeared in 1942; it excluded from public baths mental patients without caretakers and patients with infectious diseases. This is the first mention of mental patients in public bath regulations in Tokyo. Then, in 1948, Article 4 of the national Public Bath Law prohibited from bathing mental patients liable to give troubles to other bathers and people with infectious diseases. Interestingly, in the arguments about the Public Bath Law in the National Diet, nobody referred to mental patients being excluded from public baths. The assembly members treated only the issue of protecting "healthy people" from infectious diseases. Also of note, this research shows that the disqualification clause banning mental patients from public baths appeared before World War II, not after WWII as previously thought.


Keywords: public baths, disqualification clause, mental patients, Public Bath Law, Yokujo Oyobi Yokujo Eigyo Torishimari-Kisoku