TOKYO >> With the Rugby World Cup drawing about 500,000 visitors to Japan, attitudes have been split among public bath operators over whether to accept foreign customers with tattoos. Some facilities ...

Japan's “hot spring capital” is trying to find ways to make one of the country's most popular pastimes more inclusive for people who identify as LGBT, when most public baths are segregated according ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. For many, sento are still a vital part of daily life in Japan, each governed by a strict set of customs. For ...

It was a cold February day in northern Japan, snow piled high outside the onsen locker room windows as I slipped out of my clothes. Nervously, I stepped into the plumes of steam wafting from the next ...

For many years after I experienced my first Japanese onsen, or public bath, and whenever I was in Japan on my annual trip, I found myself playing a variation of that game recommended to nervous public ...

Japan has nearly 30,000 hot springs and a culture of public bathing. An Israeli American architect, Yuval Zohar, has developed a passion for it. The architect Yuval Zohar at his favorite hot spring ...