Onsen rules — the government's own bathing standard, and what it says about tattoos

This page cannot tell you whether a particular bath will let you in. Facilities set their own house rules and can be stricter than anything national. What it can do is show you what the ministries have actually published — which turns out to be more, and more useful, than the etiquette lists.

⭐ Washing first is in the standard, not in the folklore

Every guide tells you to wash before getting in. Almost none of them mention that it sits in the Environment Ministry's own bathing standard, next to the rules about alcohol and water temperature, in the same document a facility works from. Here it is:

The parts that matter most are the ones the etiquette lists skip. Do not bathe after drinking — the standard singles out bathing while drunk as especially to be avoided, and a ryokan dinner with beer followed by the bath is exactly the order it warns against. Above 42 °C is to be avoided by anyone older, with high blood pressure, with a heart condition or who has had a stroke. Three to ten minutes at first, not until you are pink.

⭐ The board by the changing room is a legal document

Under article 18(1) of the Hot Spring Act, anyone offering a hot spring for public bathing must display the spring's name and type, its analysis, the contraindications, and the cautions for bathing in or drinking it. It is set with a doctor's input and reviewed by the prefecture.

So the sign you walk past is the answer for that specific spring, not a generic poster. Two minutes in front of it beats any amount of general advice — including this page.

What is on the contraindication list now

⚠ That is the list a facility must post, decided for that spring. It is not a judgment about anyone's health, and this site does not make one.

⛔ Pregnancy came off the list in 2014

The standard in force from 1982 to 2014 ended its general contraindications with 「妊娠中（とくに初期と末期）」 — pregnancy, particularly early and late. The standard that replaced it on 1 July 2014 does not contain it. You can see the two lists side by side in the ministry's own comparison table, linked below.

⚠ That is a change in what a facility is required to post. It is not a statement that bathing is safe in pregnancy, and this page does not make one — that is a question for your own doctor. But almost every English guide still repeats the 1982 line, because the list it was written from stood for thirty-two years.

Tattoos: there is no national rule, and there is a written position

Both halves of that sentence are true and both get dropped. On 16 March 2016 the Japan Tourism Agency wrote to the hotel, city-hotel, ryokan and hot-spring industry bodies and said:

入れ墨をしていることのみをもって、入浴を拒否することは適切ではございません。

Refusing someone entry solely because they have a tattoo is not appropriate.

The health ministry circulated it to every prefecture two days later, asking them to make sure refusals do not happen for improper reasons. The agency's stated reasoning included that people have tattoos for religious, cultural and fashion reasons, and — the line worth carrying — that a tattoo creates no hygiene problem.

It offered facilities three ways to accommodate people rather than refuse them: cover the tattoo with a sticker or a hygienic bathing garment; suggest a quieter hour; or offer a different bath, a rentable private bath, or a room with its own. ⭐ It also said that where a tattoo is small — its own example is palm-sized — and not intimidating, nothing should be asked at all.

⛔ This is guidance to operators. It is not law and it is not a right. Facilities still set their own rule and many still refuse. Asking for a 貸切風呂 (kashikiri-buro, a private bath you book) is not an imposition — it is one of the three options the agency itself put in front of them.

⚠ The guidance followed a survey the agency published on 21 October 2015. It sent a questionnaire to about 3,800 hotels and ryokan and heard back from about 600 — about 15%. Of those, about 56% refused bathers with tattoos, about 31% did not, and about 13% allowed them on conditions such as covering the tattoo with a sticker. Of the facilities that refused, about 59% said it was their own decision on grounds of public morals and hygiene, about 13% pointed to an agreement within the industry or among local businesses, and about 9% to a request or instruction from the police or local government.

Read those numbers for what they are: figures from 2015, from before the guidance, from the one facility in seven that answered. The agency has since taken the page down; the source list links to an archived copy.

⭐ Two official positions nobody translates

• A bathing garment over surgical scars. Public baths, hotel and ryokan baths and saunas may be used while wearing a garment made to cover scars from breast surgery or a skin graft. The ministry states there is no hygiene problem when it is put on in the changing room and rinsed of soap before entering — and asks operators, staff and other bathers for their understanding.
• Bathing with a stoma. There is a separate published request for understanding of people with a colostomy or urostomy using public baths.

Both sit on the health ministry's public-bath page, alongside the tattoo notice.

Related

• Lodging tax — what the ryokan bill carries that the quote did not.
• Bringing medicine into Japan — the other page here built to report a rule without giving medical advice.
• Emergency alerts — what the warning on your phone means.