True Recovery Beyond 'Getting Reset': The Dream of Making Japan a 'Retreat Nation' from Gunma, the Sacred Land of Hot Springs

We are proud to announce our dream at Sokyu Co., Ltd. to transform Japan into a retreat nation visited by people from all over the world.

Our company endorses "April Dream," an initiative to make April 1st a day for announcing dreams. This press release represents the dream of "Sokyu Co., Ltd." "Getting reset"—going beyond that word, deeper.

## True Recovery Beyond 'Getting Reset': The Dream of Making Japan a 'Retreat Nation' from Gunma, the Sacred Land of Hot Springs

It begins the moment you step out of the cold bath and lean back into a chair. Your mind quiets. The edges of the scenery soften. You can no longer tell if your body is heavy or light. That sensation—as if you're being carried somewhere, yet still here.

This feeling has come to be known as "getting reset" (totonotta). That deep sense of floating, familiar to every sauna enthusiast, has drawn many people to saunas. We are truly delighted by the spread of this culture.

But, to be honest, that's just the entrance.

## 'Getting Reset' is Merely a Stepping Stone

Experiencing pleasure and achieving true physical recovery are not the same.

What Sokyu Co., Ltd. pursues in the saunas it designs and manufactures is not the momentary sensation of "feeling good." It's a deep recovery where the body repairs itself at a cellular level, immunity is regulated, skin is revitalized, and fatigue is thoroughly eradicated.

Health recovery, beautiful skin, anti-aging, and recuperation. These are the inherent powers of sauna, and what we aim to bring out through our designs.

"Getting reset" is just the first step on that journey. We design what lies beyond.

360-degree radiant heat from walls and floor
Design for increasing core body temperature
Floor is a bedrock bath
Sauna for body and mind recovery

## What Finland Has Known for Hundreds of Years

A country of approximately 5.5 million people with over 3 million saunas.

In Finland, saunas are not just entertainment; they are a part of daily life. In homes, businesses, and public institutions. For hundreds of years, they have been spaces that have accompanied human life, once serving as places for childbirth and recuperation.

In 2020, "Finnish sauna culture" was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. This was not an acknowledgment of a "pleasant experience." It was the moment when a culture for humans to deeply recover as human beings was recognized globally.

What Finns have known for hundreds of years, we are striving to prove with Japanese technology and science.

## Towards Saunas Proven by Data, Not Just Sensation

Sokyu Co., Ltd.'s sauna is currently patent-pending (design registered).

The structural design, which stores heat up to the walls and floor, differs in design philosophy from conventional saunas that heat the air. Regarding this "radiant design using structural elements as a heat medium," we will proceed with academic verification of the thermal environment design—radiant heat, humidity, globe temperature, and perceived temperature—through joint research with Maebashi Institute of Technology.

Furthermore, in collaboration with experts possessing medical and scientific knowledge, we will challenge ourselves to scientifically verify the effects of this sauna space on the human body—blood flow improvement, autonomic nervous system action, immune function, and skin regeneration promotion.

Our goal is not merely the impression of "feeling good," but a sauna that can scientifically prove health recovery, recuperation, and anti-aging with data.

Saunas researched from both structural design and medical science perspectives do not yet exist in Japan. We are stepping into that void, starting from Gunma.

Analysis of sauna structure and biological response
Science of recovery

## Re-cultivating Sauna Culture from Gunma, the Sacred Land of Hot Springs

Kusatsu, Ikaho, Manza, Shima—Gunma is home to a series of Japan's proud hot spring resorts.

Japanese people once had the word "Toji" (hot spring cure). Hot springs were not for healing, but for curing. They were places that always existed to prepare the body before it broke down and to restore depleted life.

Saunas, too, should have originally been such places.

Japan already possesses treasures envied by the world. Hot springs, saunas, bedrock baths, the four seasons of nature, fermentation culture, and food. Few countries on Earth have so many "materials for human recovery." What is lacking is not the materials, but the will and design to bundle them as a "culture of recovery" and deliver it to the world.

## Just as Japanese Food Became a Global Culinary Sanctuary

Once, few people would have imagined that Japanese cuisine would be so highly regarded worldwide. But now, people all over the world say they "go to Japan for food."

Just as Finland's sauna culture was recognized by UNESCO, we believe in a future where Japan's unique wellness culture, fusing hot springs, saunas, and bedrock baths, will someday be internationally recognized as a culture.

We dream of a day when people all over the world say, "I'm going to Japan for recovery." A day when Japan becomes the world's "retreat nation."

"Retreat JAPAN" becomes a destination for people all over the world.

## April Dream Declaration

Going beyond "getting reset."

Health recovery, beautiful skin, anti-aging, recuperation—that is the true essence of sauna.

Re-cultivating sauna culture from Gunma, the sacred land of hot springs,

Making Japan a country where the world comes to "recover."

Sokyu Co., Ltd. begins this dream from Gunma.

Toshio Tomozawa, Representative Director

### Company Profile

Company Name: Sokyu Co., Ltd.
Representative: Toshio Tomozawa, Representative Director
Established: June 18, 2024
Location: 2-10-2 Chiyoda-machi, Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture
Business Activities: Design, manufacturing, and R&D of saunas / Planning and operation of wellness spaces / Operation of "THE W Relax Garden Resort"
Contact: contact@thew.jp
Official website of THE W Relax Garden Resort: https://thew.jp/