Tattoo rules at Japanese baths, in numbers
We read what 1,743 hot spring baths, hotel baths and bathhouses in 104 towns and cities across Japan publish about tattoos, each on the operator’s own website. This page is the count. The numbers are recounted from the listings every time the site is rebuilt, so they are current as of the date at the foot.
The short answer
- 125 of 1,743 (7%) let tattoos into the shared bath with nothing to cover.
- 252 (14%) let them in under a cover seal that hides the tattoo.
- 880 (50%) have a private bath or a room with its own tub, which takes the rule off the table.
- 486 (28%) refuse or publish nothing a traveler can rely on. 218 of them refuse in writing, and 81 of those say a sticker or body paint does not help either.
Put another way: one bath in five in this guide takes a tattoo in the shared water, outright or under a seal, and half the places listed are here for a bath you do not share.
Who says yes, by kind of place
| Kind of place | Checked | Allowed outright | Under a seal | Private bath only | Refused or nothing published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryokan and inns | 726 | 32 (4%) | 24 (3%) | 583 (80%) | 87 (12%) |
| Hotels | 695 | 42 (6%) | 207 (30%) | 257 (37%) | 189 (27%) |
| Day-use bath halls | 151 | 12 (8%) | 19 (13%) | 5 (3%) | 115 (76%) |
| Neighborhood bathhouses | 171 | 39 (23%) | 2 (1%) | 35 (20%) | 95 (56%) |
Two patterns stand out. The hotel chains are where the cover seal lives: most of the 252 seal rules are chain hotels, and most of the private-bath listings are ryokan, where a tub in the room or a bath you book by the hour is ordinary. And the old neighborhood bathhouses are the shared baths likeliest to take a tattoo outright, at 23%, while the big modern day-use halls are the least likely, at 8%.
Where the open baths are
The share of checked places that take a tattoo in the shared bath, outright or under a seal, is highest in the cities, where the chain hotels are, and lowest in the small spa towns, where the answer is a private bath instead.
| Town or city | Checked | Shared bath takes a tattoo |
|---|---|---|
| Osaka | 43 | 39 (91%) |
| Tokyo | 78 | 67 (86%) |
| Kinosaki Onsen | 12 | 10 (83%) |
| Kyoto | 20 | 14 (70%) |
| Beppu Onsen | 43 | 21 (49%) |
| Nagoya | 33 | 16 (48%) |
| Hakuba | 19 | 8 (42%) |
| Kusatsu Onsen | 16 | 6 (38%) |
| Myoko | 8 | 3 (38%) |
| Akiu Onsen | 18 | 6 (33%) |
At the other end, 25 of the 104 towns have no shared bath on record that takes a tattoo at all; every listing there is a private bath or a room with its own tub.
The hotel chains, side by side
A chain’s rule is not always the hotel’s rule, so every hotel below was read on its own page. The count is the hotels of that chain in this guide.
| Chain | Hotels checked | Allowed outright | Under a seal | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mitsui Garden | 19 | 19 | 0 | Allowed outright at every hotel with a bath, since March 1, 2026 |
| Hoshino Resorts (Kai and others) | 15 | 9 | 1 | Not restricted in principle; a cover seal where day visitors share the bath |
| Candeo Hotels | 14 | 7 | 7 | Half allow outright, half under a seal |
| APA Hotels | 38 | 0 | 36 | Under two 10 cm × 12 cm (3.9 × 4.7 in) seals, free to overnight guests |
| Route Inn | 37 | 0 | 36 | Under any seal that hides the tattoo; bring your own |
| Dormy Inn and Onyado Nono | 49 | 0 | 30 | Seals up to 11.8 cm × 17.2 cm (4.6 × 6.8 in) at most hotels; some refuse outright on their own page |
| Ooedo Onsen Monogatari | 31 | 0 | 30 | Under two of the hotel’s own 10 cm × 14 cm (3.9 × 5.5 in) seals, ¥220 each |
| Super Hotel | 9 | 0 | 0 | Refused at every hotel |
The cover seal, in numbers
252 baths take a cover seal and 133 of them publish the size. The most common limit is 10 cm × 12 cm (3.9 × 4.7 in), at 35 baths, then 8 cm × 10 cm (3.1 × 3.9 in) at 26, then 11.8 cm × 17.2 cm (4.6 × 6.8 in) at 24. 49 baths hand seals out free at the front desk and 43 sell them, from ¥200. The seal guide has the sizes by chain and where to buy them.
The rules are loosening
Among the baths that now allow tattoos outright or under a seal, 18 date the change on their own page: 1 in 2020, 2 in 2023, 4 in 2024, 2 in 2025, 9 in 2026. Most operators give no date, so this is a floor, not a count of every change. Mitsui Garden’s 19 hotels, which dropped the rule on March 1, 2026, are the largest single move.
The private bath
880 places are listed for a bath you do not share. About 280 of them put the tub in the room, and about 350 say the private bath is free for staying guests. The private onsen guide explains how they are booked.
How we counted, and what we did not
Every rule was read on the operator’s own website, in Japanese where that is all there is, and the Japanese wording is quoted on each listing. Where an operator publishes nothing, we say so rather than guess. We counted places, not bathtubs, and one rule per place: a hotel whose shared bath refuses tattoos but whose rooms have their own spring tub counts once, as a private bath. Chains were counted hotel by hotel.
We did not survey every bath in Japan. The 1,743 places are the ones a traveler is likely to book or visit in 104 towns and cities chosen for their hot springs, so the private-bath share reflects what we chose to list as much as Japan as a whole. We did not measure how a rule is enforced at the door, only what is published. Rules change; the date at the foot is when the numbers were last recounted, and each listing carries the date its rule was read.
Quote the numbers freely with a link to this page. The full list behind every one of them is on this site.
More guides
Tattoo cover seals: where to buy them, and what size →