Japan's Public Bathhouses Becoming More Foreigner-friendly

Above, a public bath in a business hotel.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One aspect of Japanese culture is the public bathhouses.

With the 2020 Olympic Games coming to Tokyo, public bath facilities are making a big push to be more foreigner-friendly in preparation.

According to the Japan Times:

Tokyo’s “sento” public bathhouses are making an effort to become foreigner-friendly by printing multilingual brochures and posters to explain Japan’s communal bathing etiquette ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. 

“We know some foreign travelers have shown interest in the bathhouses as a unique aspect of Japanese culture,” Katsutoshi Kuromasa, a section chief at the Tokyo Sento Association, said Friday. He added that member bathhouse operators in popular tourist spots like Asakusa in Taito Ward have recently seen more foreigners trying out the mass baths.

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