At many Japanese baths, guests with tattoos may not use the shared bath. But the rule almost never applies to your own room bath, and some ryokans explicitly allow tattoos. On japanstays, 11 of the 21 inns state a rule; you will find it on each inn’s page, quoted in the inn’s own words where possible.
Why the rule exists
In Japan, tattoos are widely seen in a negative light. In March 2016 the Japan Tourism Agency published guidance for baths on how to handle foreign guests with tattoos. It also notes that tattoos are not a hygiene problem and that people may have them for religious, cultural or fashion reasons.
What the Japan Tourism Agency recommends
The 2016 guidance lists four approaches: covering the tattoo with a sticker, not requiring special treatment for small, roughly palm-sized tattoos, letting guests bathe at times when few families are present, and pointing guests to private hire baths. These are recommendations; each bath decides for itself.
Four solutions
1. Your own bath in the room. The safest option, because the rules concern the shared bath. Kinnotake Tonosawa has no public bath at all, but an open-air bath in each of its 21 rooms; the Kinnotake group’s house rules allow tattoos in the private open-air baths. Hatsuhana and Senkyoro explicitly allow tattoos in the room bath, but not in the large bath.
2. The private hire bath. A bath for you and your companion, usually for 40 to 60 minutes. Gora Kadan explicitly asks guests with larger tattoos to use its private bath.
3. Cover sheets. Since December 2023, Yoshiike allows the large bath and the pool if two sheets of 10 × 14 cm cover the tattoo; the sheets are sold at reception for 250 yen each. Kozantei Ubuya at Lake Kawaguchi allows the large bath with two sheets of 10 × 10 cm.
4. Tattoo-friendly inns. Yama no Chaya answers the question about tattoos in the bath in its FAQ with “Yes, it is available.” Fukuzumiro says there are no particular restrictions. Gora Hanaougi lets guests with tattoos use the large bath. Gora Kadan allows small tattoos up to about A4 size.
Ask before booking
If an inn states no rule, ask by email before you arrive. A simple sentence in Japanese helps: “タトゥーがありますが、大浴場を利用できますか？” (I have a tattoo. May I use the large bath?) Add the size and location of the tattoo.
The table below shows the 21 inns on japanstays with their rule for the public bath. Where it says “not stated”, the inn has published no rule; that does not mean tattoos are allowed.
