Japanese cities raise onsen ‘bathing tax’ to boost revenue, offset rising costs

The price of a relaxing soak in one of Japan’s famous onsen is going up as towns across the country look to offset shrinking revenues from other sources and cover the costs of an ageing population.

Foreign visitors looking forward to sampling one of Japan’s must-try experiences need not worry, however, as the overnight “bathing tax” is only rising from typically 150 yen (99 US cents) to 300 yen, a figure that has virtually no effect on holiday spending as the yen is so weak against other currencies at present.

Analysts agree that the hike in the tax is unlikely to make a serious dent in a traveller’s wallet, but are calling for the funds that are raised to be quickly ploughed back into the local travel sector to provide better facilities and services for visitors.

“As long as these local authorities are spending that money in the community where it was raised and that it is helping the tourism sector, then this makes perfectly good sense to me,” said Ashley Harvey, a travel marketing analyst who has worked in Japan’s travel sector for more than 15 years.

“I can imagine there might be some domestic pushback as local people also have to pay the new tax and they are not getting the advantage of the weak yen, but there are ways they can benefit,” Harvey told This Week in Asia. “Funds can be set aside, for example, for a free bus service to the local onsen for people over the age of 60.

“People would understand and support something like that,” he said, although he cautioned that there would not be the same degree of support for the funds being spent on junkets for local officials, even if they were described as research to improve a town’s tourism offerings.