Japan hot springs facing water shortages as tourism booms

Hot springs?Hot air,more like!

Sweet lord. What else can you blame foreign tourists for? Let me guess, they are also eating all the rice at these resorts, too. I mean, sorry... but the majority of tourists to onsens are Japanese, plain and simple. And if there has been a surge in tourism in general (not just foreign) due to a new shinkansen station/track being built nearby, that is certainly not the fault of foreign tourism.

Next they'll be blaming foreign tourism for natural disasters.

Too many tourists makes the onsen water drops. Got it.

We need a clarification thought. Is it because of domestic or foreign tourists??

Is very important.

May be they should take a look at water wastage in general, like broken pipes, more economic toilets, they need to take a look at the bigger picture, when cleaning your teeth, turn off the tap, and how about collecting rain water for plants and fountains, in Europe they have two supplies one every clean water for drinking and two poor quality water for toilets etc, the rain water can be used for toilets as well, some hotels have onsen on the upper floors, how about capturing the overspill water from the showers and onsen baths to use for flushing the toilet, if each person could save 1,2,3 ltrs of water a day, that's a lot of water

The prefecture links the decline to rising demand after shinkansen bullet train services to the area began, bringing more visitors. It has urged onsen to limit daily extraction and some hotels to regulate late-night in-room baths to allow water levels to recover gradually.

Have they considered climate change as the culprit?

There was an "emergency press conference " people...show some respect !

I have noticed a trend in hotels asking guests to conserve water, decline bed making if possible. Yet, the hotels' baths tend to have water running endlessly. Go figure.

Thing is, so many things can influence the volume of water from a hot spring. Volcanic and tectonic activity, varying rates of water filling the aquifer, sedimentation of the minerals in the water causing clogging, natural disasters, etc.

The article is about the mineral water pumped up to Onsens or hot springs. It's not about water supplies in general. There are no shortages for water.

The lack of mineral water has nothing to do with tourist numbers. Most of those will not take a naked Onsen.

As usual, it's always the foreign tourists' fault. Problems with rice availability and prices? Blame the increase in foreign tourists. Water shortages in onsen? Well, of course, it's the foreign tourists' fault.

Despite having significantly lower tourist numbers compared to true tourism leaders like Italy, Spain, or France, Japan tends to point fingers at foreign tourists for any issue related to resource management or the environment.

In the case of rice, it's true that foreign tourists consume it, but the per capita consumption among Japanese people is vastly higher. The same applies to onsen: the overwhelming majority of users are locals, and domestic tourism in Japan is far more significant than international tourism.

Blaming foreign tourists for everything is childish. Japan had 36.87 million foreign tourists in 2024. Italy had 458 million tourists in the same year (12 times the number of tourists recorded in Japan) and doesn’t make a big fuss about everything. European countries also face issues related to overtourism, such as the boom of bed and breakfasts in historic city centers and fewer rental homes available for residents. However, they don’t complain about every little thing the way Japan does.

The solution is certainly not to demonize those who visit the country. If there are management issues, the responsibility falls on Japan, on japanese tourism policies and urban planning, not on the tourists themselves.

Any onsen with a limited supply of spring water will recirculate and reheat the same onsen water with only a trickle of fresh coming in. This is common knowledge in Japan. Their facilities may have several baths, indoor, outdoor, lie down etc. but not all of them may be connected to the spring. The others may just use heated regular water like a bath at home, or whatever dilution of spring water they can get away with. At such onsens, the showers etc. will all be 100% heated tap water with no minerals. For such onsens, it would be bogus to moan about foreigners showering too long or flushing the toilet or any other incorrectly perceived form of bad behaviour because such activities do not use water from the spring. They use tap water.

If you want to go to an onsen that does not recycle onsen water, you must go to one marked "kakenagashi". This is what hardcore onsen otaku do. These may not be the poshest facilities in the poshest places.

Some of Japanese most rundown towns are onsen resorts that were overdeveloped in the 1980s. If it were not for foreign tourism from SK, Taiwan etc., they would be in an even worse state than they are already.

"Japan hot springs facing water shortages as tourism booms."

As good as the hot spring water is on the skin, I don't know about you but with me nothing kills erection faster than hotspring. I would appreciate it to know whether there are studies out there on the relation between hotspring water and low child birth.

Locals only! Tourists out!

Each time I visit an onsen (I am the bad foreigner!!), I'd estimate that 9 out of 10 bathers are Japanese.

But, sure Japan. Let's go ahead and blame foreigners and over tourism once again... What will foreigners be blamed for next? Eating up all of the natto?

Yup,

Blame it on Tourism again, why cant we just agree that this year was a dry and leave the tourists alone.

Better yet if that is the case then LIMIT the number of tourists allowed into the country!!!? I am sure that will solve all of Japans problems.

Oh please! During the Bubble Atami was packed so was Hakkone etc .. go today and Atami is dead compared to back then, same for Hakkone.

This sounds like another "blame foreigners" junk like the fake debunked "too many climbers on mount Fuji" between 2006 and 2017 between 275,000 to 430,000 per year climbed Fuji but suddenly they need to charge because of over tourism when the number is only 230,000.

I smell another money grab and an attempt coming soon to hike prices for foreigners and what better excuse than they are using up resources!

Rice Shortage !? Blame it on Tourists.

Water Shortage !? Blame it on Tourists.

Inflation !? Blame it on Tourists.

Not enough Oxygen !? Blame it on Tourists.

What else could we blame on them tourists !???

This most hypocritical thing is that during the Bubble the Japanese ran around the world paying crazy prices buying anything and everything, breaking rules like taking pictures during mass in Notre Dame, etc...

Now that the Japanese no longer have the expendable cash and foreigners do, the Japanese are upset.

Blame tourists for the rice shortage.

Why not blame the government who is still paying farmers NOT to grow rice.

Years back the government started playing farmers not to grow rice in order to keep the prices high/level.

Now that we need more rice, the logical move is to stop doing this and tell these "farmers" to start growing rice again, but they didn't the government is still paying them not to grow rice, and they won't stop because the first government/party to cancel this program will lose farmer votes.

It seems that either people here are to young to remember or the Japanese here don't want to be reminded.

But I remember Eaton's in Toronto and Vancouver literally closing of entire sections as the bus loads of Japanese tourists arrived and reserving these for the Japanese only.

The same in NY and Paris where the top brand shops would close their stores kick everyone out as the bus loads of Japanese tourists were scheduled to arrive.

Funny how short people's memories are and how the Japanese had no problem with that type of situation/special treatment.

I am a little surprised no one has used the onsen water shortage to justify the lack of geothermal energy development in Japan. However, regarding that issue, many geothermal energy plants recycle their water, pumping the used water back deep underground. Perhaps the onsen owners will consider pumping water underground to be recycled, for the use of bathers.

KariHarukaToday  07:23 pm JST

Each time I visit an onsen (I am the bad foreigner!!), I'd estimate that 9 out of 10 bathers are Japanese. 

But, sure Japan. Let's go ahead and blame foreigners and over tourism once again... What will foreigners be blamed for next? Eating up all of the natto?

I don’t know the last time you went, but to my huge surprise, 80% of the people at the onsen I visited last month in Yumoto, Hakone, were foreigners.

I also used to be the only foreigner in every onsen I visited until recently. It seems completely different today—you have to see it to believe it.

The increase in "tourism" numbers reflects the move for most Japanese to vacation at home, in Japan since the pandemic. Raising prices across Japan hurts Japanese more than tourists, who will return home after their visit to Japan.

To blame onsen water or rice shortage fully on foreign tourists is silly.

Just decided to break my rule of going to at least one new onsen, every time I come back to Japan…still haven’t gone, and now I see this.

Japan has a serious superiority complex and an inflated ego. It’s not even in the top 5 countries with the most foreign tourists in the world, yet it acts like a prima donna, complaining about everything. In 2023, Japan recorded 32.2 million international tourist arrivals, ranking 11th globally. Japan, don't get too cocky.

If a country that proudly proclaims itself the best in the world at hospitality (during the lead-up to the Olympics, you couldn’t go five minutes without hearing the word omotenashi) and considers itself highly advanced in technology can't even manage just over 30 million foreign tourists a year, then those in charge of Japan's tourism sector should go back to kindergarten.

I see that, as usual, anyone who doesn’t blindly praise Japan and dares to point out its mistakes gets bombarded with downvotes.

I started to go to a hydrothermal pool in the hills of South Cal that I was told about. One has to walk in through a forest, about a half mile from the nearest road. It is only big enough for half a dozen people at most. It is hot and sulfuric, with no visible water inlets or outlets. Just a beautiful pool of hot water in the middle of the forest. At least half the time I was the only one there. At most, and only once, three others were there.

It is amazing what wonders one can find close to even heavily populated areas like LA, from hydrothermal vents to bald eagles, and even beavers, steelhead, and mountain lions. I am surprised no one mentions the beavers near Los Angeles.

I don’t know the last time you went, but to my huge surprise, 80% of the people at the onsen I visited last month in Yumoto, Hakone, were foreigners.

@Rakuraku

I won't discredit your own personal experiences. But I've recently visited Tenzan Onsen in Hakone (January), Kusatsu Onsen (February) and Takimotokan in Noboribetsu, also in February (I am limited to tattoo friendly onsens due to my tattoos). And I can estimate that the majority of bathers were still Japanese, with very few foreigners.

The one exception that I could think of, is Hokeikyo Onsen on the outskirts of Sapporo. Which is often packed with foreigners, and an onsen that I intentionally avoid.

Loving today’s comments.

QUICK! , look the other WAY, ! Another foreigner ! Lol

We've been to onsen in Fukushima, Karuizawa, Tochigi, Gunma, Ibaraki and Izu about a dozen times since the tourism boom started and always remark about the near absence of foreign tourists staying at our facilities.

This narrative, just like the foreigners eating up the nation's rice (a problem actually caused by Japanese black marketeers, and which the Japanese media isn't allowed to delve into) is bunk.

Onsen are not for foreigners. You don’t even know what to do how to do, you can’t gobas a couple togzther and most people don’t like to show their junk to unknown people.

I strongly believe if there are 5 % of tourists, that is the most it can be.

Of course it is the foreigner’s fault!

Onsen are not for foreigners. You don’t even know what to do how to do.

Ha! Massive generational there! The last few times I’ve been to an onsen, there were several people each time (Japanese) who didn’t have a shower before getting in. Of course, it’s the foreigners who get the blame for everything as usual.

Interesting that this Kyodo News Service article has no byline on it and conflates several different hot spring areas of Japan. I am really surprised at the start to see Ureshino hot spring listed as having not enough hot water. I have been to the Saga hot springs, including Ureshino, and don't remember seeing any other foreigners there besides myself and my two Chinese friends that I took. Ureshino is popular locally, but not on any foreign tourism track. It is not between any important foreign tourism areas either. I find that this article mentions foreigners as a hot spring problem in the first and last paragraphs, but they are not mentioned in any of the specific information in the middle of the article. This is just another poorly written Kyodo article that links foreigners to hot spring problems without any specific examples - and therefore seems to be something that comes up in Kyodo from time to time without any basis in fact.

Always the same old, same old.

Japan has overtourism because of the weak yen, a problem of Japan's own making.

This is yet another case of Japan biting the hand that is feeding it.

Kyodo always comes up with ‘sky is falling’