Workers remove an aging water pipe at the site of a leak in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, in June 2025. (Asahi Shimbun file photo) Nearly a quarter of Japan’s municipal water utilities operated at a loss in fiscal 2024, the highest ratio in 10 years, and rate hikes appear inevitable nationwide, an Asahi Shimbun analysis found. Water utilities are, in principle, designed to be self-supporting.