Nationwide survey · as of 12 Oct 2026

Most inns say nothing.

Ginzan Onsen's wooden inns and gas lamps along the river at blue hour
Town photo · Ginzan Onsen at blue hour · Photo: lumoplank (photo page on Wikimedia Commons, opens in a new tab) · CC0 (licence, opens in a new tab)
Official sites searched
631

ryokan and hotels whose official websites we searched for a written tattoo policy — as of 12 Oct 2026. A few rules come from a prefecture database or a group-wide policy instead, and a few inns have no official site; each inn's page says which.

85give tattooed guests a written way into a hot-spring bath — about 1 in 7.
69of the 174 with a written rule do not permit tattoos — about 4 in 10.

How to read this

As of 12 Oct 2026

One bar, all 631 inns. Solid colours are the 174 with a written rule; the rest — 451 — publish no rule (244 of them with a confirmed private hot-spring bath).

Shared OK305%
Covered OK406%
Private only356%
Not allowed6911%
Needs check6<1%
Private likely24439%
Says nothing20733%

Counts are inns, not baths. “Says nothing” means no tattoo policy found on the official site — not a yes and not a no. Photos in this section are atmosphere only — none shows an inn from the survey.

Needs check
6<1%of 631

A rule exists but the inn's pages disagree, or it only covers day bathing. Being re-checked.

Since the first survey

On 29 Sep 2026 we counted 634 inns: 18 shared OK, 26 OK if covered, 23 private only, 66 not allowed and 501 saying nothing.

Since then we re-read every inn. 451 still publish no rule; 244 of those now have a confirmed private hot-spring bath. 634 → 631: one inn is no longer listed and two duplicates were merged.

How the survey works

  1. One list of inns. 631 ryokan and onsen hotels in 37 onsen towns across Japan.
  2. Read the inn's own site. Bath rules, FAQ, house rules and terms pages — plus the chain's site or the prefecture's facility database when that is where the rule is published. Never reviews or forums.
  3. Copy the sentence that decides it. The Japanese original is kept verbatim with its source page and the day we checked it; the English is our translation, labelled as ours.
  4. Check the quote is really there. All 598 quotes were string-matched against a saved copy of their source page; 598 of 598 matched.
  5. No rule is not a yes. If an inn publishes nothing, it is “Says nothing” — or “Private likely” when a hot-spring private bath or in-room onsen is confirmed. Neither means tattoos are allowed.

Register as of 12 Oct 2026; rules last checked 11 Oct 2026. The first survey on 29 Sep 2026 counted 634 inns; since then one inn is no longer listed and two duplicate rows were merged.

Download the register

Every inn, its status, the kind of source and the day it was checked — 631 rows, UTF-8 CSV. No booking links.

Download CSV ↓

Columns: slug, name_en, name_ja, pref, area, status, source_type, checked_at. Free to cite with a link back to this page.

Status breakdown

Shared OK305%
Covered OK406%
Private only356%
Not allowed6911%
Needs check6<1%
Private likely24439%
Says nothing20733%
Inns by tattoo status, as of 12 Oct 2026, compared with the 29 Sep 2026 survey
StatusWhat it meansInnsShare29 Sep
Shared OKTattoos are allowed in the shared bath.305%18
Covered OKAllowed in the shared bath if the tattoo is covered.406%26
Private onlyNot in the shared bath, but a private bath is confirmed.356%23
Not allowedThe cited rule does not permit tattoos — see the stay page for which baths it covers.6911%66
Needs checkEvidence is conflicting or out of date; being re-checked.6<1%—
Private likelyNo tattoo rule stated; a hot-spring private bath is listed (our inference, not the inn's word).24439%—
Says nothingThe official site says nothing. This does not mean OK.20733%—
All innsOn 29 Sep 2026 the 501 inns that said nothing were one group; they are now split into “Private likely”, “Says nothing” and “Needs check”.631100%634