Finland's sauna giants target Japan as emerging hot spot

Nordic nation capitalizes on booming market for things that make you sweat

20231004 Sauna Finland Japan

About 5.5 million Japanese people regularly visit a sauna, roughly equivalent to Finland's total population. (NIKKEI montage/Source photos by Reuters and AFP/Jiji)

RHYANNON BARTLETT-IMADEGAWA, Nikkei staff writer

HELSINKI -- Matias Jarnefelt is always thinking about saunas. But the CEO of Harvia Group isn't sneaking out of his suburban Helsinki office to enjoy Finland's favorite way to relax.

Instead, he's studying raw sauna data, and they're telling him that Japan will be a hot spot for his sweaty line of work.

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