Sapporo lowers age at which kids are barred from opposite sex’s bath at hot springs, public baths

Apr 14, 2023 | News On Japan

SAPPORO - In the modern era, almost all onsen (hot springs) and sento (public baths) have separate baths for men and women.

However, allowances are made for mothers taking their young son with them into the women’s bath, or fathers taking their young daughters into the men’s. Sort of like with parents taking their kids with them into restrooms for the opposite sex, it’s a societal gray area as to what age it’s OK to do that until.

Legally, though, in Hokkaido the limit for taking boys into the women’s bath or girls into the men’s bath was up until the kid’s 10th birthday. That changed this week, and as of April 11 children will be barred from entering the opposite sex’s bath starting at the age of 7.

The impetus for the change appears to be a study conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2021 which determined that six or seven were the ages at which the largest proportions of children (or perhaps their parents who were answering for them, as the exact methodology is unclear) said they would be embarrassed being unclothed in a bath with people of the opposite sex. ...continue reading

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