28 Asia The EconomistFebruary 10th 2018
Bathing etiquette in JapanInk stink
A
WARM aroma of citrus bath salts
wafts through the lobby of the Ther-
mae-yu spa in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district.
The instructions at the entrance are chilli-
er: drunks and people with tattoos
should stay out. The sign, says Yuichi
Ohama, the spa’s manager, is directed
mainly at the gangsters who haunt the
local area, a dense warren of brothels,
cabaret bars and striptease clubs. Yet the
staff increasingly find themselves turning
away tourists, too, he laments: “We’re
surprised by how many have body art.”
In Japan tattoos are associated with
criminals. Manyyakuza mobsters spend
hundreds of hours under an inky gun
having their entire bodies painted, as a
sign of gang membership and to show
they can endure pain. It is hard to keep
these artworks out of sight, naturally,
when wandering naked around a bath
house. Yet the mere sight of a tattooed
thug is enough to frighten othercustom-ers away, so many gyms, pools and onsen
(hot springs) ban tattoos or at least insist
they be covered up. Japan’s growing
army of foreign visitors has inadvertently
stumbled into this cultural minefield.
Nearly 29m touristscame to Japan last
year—triple the number in 2013—drawn
partly by the cheaper yen and relaxed
visa rules. The government wants to
reach 40m by the time Tokyo hosts the
Olympics in 2020. That has created a
dilemma for the industry, says Yuya Ota
of the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA). More
than a third of tourists take a dip in an
onsen and a growing number of them are
tattooed. “Some businesses are at a loss
about what to do with all these foreign-
ers,” says Mr Ota.
Onsen sometimes provide plasters to
cover up the offending bits. But visitors
with more elaborate decorations have to
abstain. In 2013 a Maori woman taking
part in a conference on indigenous lan-
guages was barred from entering a bath
house in Hokkaido because of her tradi-
tional facial tattoo. The JTAhas since
begun asking bathhouse owners to “give
consideration” to tattooed foreigners,
with mixed results: a survey in 2015
found that over half of hot springs still
refuse them.
Foreign tourists have helped offset the
long-term decline of the onsen industry,
admits Masao Oyama of the Japan Spa
Association. But government pleading
cannot remove the deep taboo on tattoos,
he says. “There are still many more Japa-
nese customers than foreigners and their
feelingsmust come first,” he says.
Mr Ohama says he is struggling to
decide what to do. Bend the rules too far
for foreigners and the yakuza may com-
plain about discrimination, he frets. And
choosing between unhappy foreigners
and fuming mobsters isnot hard.TOKYO
Tattooed foreigners put bath houses in a quandaryA sight no Japanese bather wants to seeW
HEN Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s
president, agreed to allow North Ko-
rean athletes not only to attend the Winter
Olympics in Pyeongchang, but also to
march alongside South Korea’s team at the
opening ceremony on February 9th, and to
form a unified women’s ice-hockey team
with the South, he knew not all South Ko-
reans would be happy. The outcry from
conservatives who see the northern re-
gime as an implacable foe was predictable.
Protesters set fire to North Korean flags
and photos of Kim Jong Un, the North’s
blood-drenched despot. One conservative
MPaccused the government of hosting the
“Pyongyang Olympics”, single-handedly
undermining South Korea’s long cam-
paign to distinguish between the Olympic
city and the North Korean capital. The
hawks railed at the exemptions that had to
be made to local and American laws to al-
low a plane from the South to take skiers to
the North for training, and to permit a ship
from the North to ferry the 140-piece Sam-
jiyon orchestra to the South. When it ran
out of fuel on arrival, they fumed that get-
ting it moving again would amount to a vi-
olation ofUNsanctions. Not unreason-
ably, they questioned the propriety of
welcoming delegates such as Kim Yo Jong,
the younger sister ofKim Jong Un, and Kim
Yong Nam, the North’s ceremonial head of
state, especially after Mr Moon announced
that he would have breakfast with the pair
on February 9th.
What Mr Moon did not expect was the
hostile response of young, liberal voters,
whose support had carried him to the pres-
idencylast year. Following the announce-
ment of the Olympic rapprochement, his
approval ratings slipped to their lowest lev-
el yet, with respondents in their 20s and
30s especially negative. “I feel like sports
has been manipulated for political ends,”
grumbles Kim Ju-hee, a 23-year-old living
in Seoul. Almost four-fifths of South Kore-
ans, including Ms Kim, support North Ko-
rea’s attendance at Pyeongchang as a way
to thaw the ice between the two countries.
More than 150,000 people have applied for
tickets to see the Samjiyon orchestra per-
form during the games. But over 60% of
people in their 20s draw the line at the idea
of a joint ice-hockey team. Many on social
media tookissue with the “parachuting in”
of the 12 North Korean athletes at the last
minute. “It’s unfair for our players. They
weren’t consulted,” Ms Kim insists.
When Mr Moon was last in govern-ment in 2002, asan aide to the late presi-
dent Roh Moo-hyun, over 80% of South Ko-
reans supported a joint North-South
entrance to the Asian Games in the South
Korean city of Busan. The two countries
were enjoying a detente, with Roh even
visiting Pyongyang for a summit. All told,
northern and southern teams marched to-
gether at seven different events between
2000 and 2007.
But South Koreans in their 20s and 30s
grew up at a time of worsening relations as
the North developed missiles and nuclear
bombs. The generation that remembers an
undivided Korea is dying out. Of the130,000 South Koreans who registered as
having been separated from family mem-
bers in the North after the Korean war, only
60,000 remain alive today—and 60% of
them are over the age of 80.
The frosty reaction to the joint hockey
team is a reflection of these changes, ar-
gues Kang Won-taek of Seoul National Uni-
versity. Studies show that young South Ko-
reans with no personal connection to the
North are less willing than older genera-
tions to contemplate personal sacrifices for
the sake of unification. As Mr Kang puts it,
“North Koreans can come to the party, but
they should do their own thing.” 7The Winter OlympicsOn thin ice
Seoul
South Koreans want North Korea at the
games, but not on their team