Having a tattoo could get you banned from enjoying a Japanese onsen

Having a tattoo could get you banned from enjoying a Japanese onsen. Photo / 123RF

Never thought that delicate butterfly tattoo on your back could get you into trouble? Think again.

Not every culture shares our same view of body art. In Japan, tattoos can actually get you banned from certain places, including the hugely popular onsens - the Japanese hot springs which are one of the major reasons many tourists visit the country.

More than half of Japanese hotels will not let visitors with tattoos enter their public bathing areas, according to a government survey.

The survey, conducted by the Japan Tourist Agency in 2015, found that 56 per cent of hotels and inns questioned across the country did not allow those with tattoos to enter public bathing areas.

Kusatsu Onsen in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Photo / 123RF

Another study conducted by Japan Tourist Agency in 2014 found that one-third of foreign tourists indicated onsens were one of their main reasons for visiting the country in the first place.

The reason for this hard line stance against tattoos in public places is that because in Japan, tattoos are associated with yaukza - or members the Japanese mafia. Many public institutions ban people who have them as a way to keep gangsters out.

But the Japan Tourism Agency wants times to change, at least when it comes to foreign tourists. Last year, the government agency pleaded with onsen operators to give more consideration to the cultural backgrounds of tattooed non-Japanese tourists. For Japanese visitors, the ban could still apply.

With the number of tourists to Japan on the rise, Shogo Akamichi, a Japan Tourism Agency official in charge of tourism promotion said that the agency hoped the change could mean that all tourists "can fully enjoy onsen in Japan", according to English-language Japanese newspaper, The Japan Times.

In 2013, the cultural clash garnered a lot of media attention after a Maori woman was turned away from a public bath in Hokkaido because of her traditional face tattoos.

But onsen operators in Japan are becoming more relaxed with foreign visitors.

Almost a third (31 per cent) of hotels and inns in 2015 survey said they wouldn't ban tattooed visitors at all and more than one in ten (13 per cent) said they would allow guests with tattoos into onsens if their tattoos were covered up.