Japan has soaplands in 63 towns. As a foreign visitor, you can realistically use them in 29.
That is the short version, and it is the part most guides leave out. Of the 581 shops we track, 104 have publicly indicated that they accept international customers. The rest will usually turn you away at the door — politely, but after you have already made the trip, and often after you have paid for a taxi to get there.
This article is the map of those 29 towns: how many shops are confirmed in each, what kind of place it is, and where it fits into a trip. The shop-by-shop list, with a link to each shop's own website, is here: shops that accept international customers.
What "accepts international customers" means — and what it does not
- It means the shop said so itself. Either its own website carries English, Chinese or Korean information, or it has listed itself on a service that shops use to signal they are open to foreign visitors.
- It does not mean English is spoken. A good number of these shops accept international customers with no English support at all. Bring a translation app and expect to use it.
- It does not mean the other shops refuse you. A town with no entry here means we have not confirmed a shop there — not that you would be turned away. We publish only what shops have confirmed themselves. We never publish a list of shops that refuse.
- The numbers move. Shops open, close, and change their minds. This page is rebuilt from our own records, and the shop list carries the date of the last check. Confirm on the shop's own site before you travel.
Where the choice is widest
Four towns hold 47 of the 104 confirmed shops:
| Town | Confirmed | Shops in town |
|---|---|---|
| Yoshiwara, Tokyo | 16 | 89 |
| Nakasu, Fukuoka | 14 | 37 |
| Fukuhara, Kobe | 10 | 52 |
| Susukino, Sapporo | 7 | 21 |
If this is your first visit and you want the widest choice, start with one of these four. Everywhere else, you are choosing between a handful of shops, which means a single closure or a full booking can leave you with nothing.
Note the second column against the third. Even in Yoshiwara, which has by far the most, the confirmed shops are a minority of the total. Walking into an unconfirmed shop and hoping is not a plan.
Tokyo and the Kanto region — 34 shops
| Town | Confirmed | Shops in town |
|---|---|---|
| Yoshiwara, Tokyo | 16 | 89 |
| Utsunomiya, Tochigi | 4 | 12 |
| Kawasaki, Kanagawa | 3 | 29 |
| Yokohama, Kanagawa | 2 | 9 |
| Kabukicho, Tokyo | 2 | 6 |
| Nishikawaguchi, Saitama | 2 | 16 |
| Gotanda, Tokyo | 1 | 1 |
| Chiba | 1 | 36 |
| Omiya, Saitama | 1 | 20 |
| Shinjuku, Tokyo | 1 | 2 |
| Mito, Ibaraki | 1 | 12 |
Yoshiwara is about ten minutes on foot from Minowa station, and it is the one place in Japan where you have real choice. Kawasaki, Nishikawaguchi and Omiya are each within about an hour of central Tokyo and have a different character from Yoshiwara and from each other; there is a separate article on how those four districts differ.
Mito is further out, in Ibaraki. The district sits between two stations: about fifteen minutes on foot from Kairakuen station, or thirty from Mito station. If you arrive at Mito station, take a taxi or ask the shop about a pickup.
Kansai — 18 shops
| Town | Confirmed | Shops in town |
|---|---|---|
| Fukuhara, Kobe | 10 | 52 |
| Ogoto, Shiga | 5 | 25 |
| Wakayama | 3 | 8 |
If you are staying in Kyoto or Osaka, these are your options — and they are not alike.
Fukuhara is a city district in Kobe, two minutes on foot from Shinkaichi station and from Minatogawa-koen station, and about fifteen minutes from Kobe station. You can get there and back on trains alone, with no pickup to arrange.
Ogoto is a hot-spring town about twenty minutes from Kyoto by train, and the station is not the district — walking there is not realistic. Shops will collect you from the station if you arrange it when you book. It suits a sightseeing day better than it looks on a map, because early-morning hours are common. There is a full article on Ogoto.
Wakayama sits on the Wakagawa river, roughly equidistant from Wakayama-shi station, Wakayama station and Wakayama Castle — about eighteen minutes on foot from each. Arrange a pickup in both directions.
Kyushu and Okinawa — 27 shops
| Town | Confirmed | Shops in town |
|---|---|---|
| Nakasu, Fukuoka | 14 | 37 |
| Okinawa | 5 | 16 |
| Kumamoto | 4 | 15 |
| Beppu, Oita | 2 | 9 |
| Miyazaki | 1 | 3 |
| Kagoshima | 1 | 3 |
Nakasu is the easiest district in Japan to reach. It sits on an island between the Hakata and Naka rivers, in the middle of Fukuoka's nightlife quarter. Kushida-Jinja-Mae station is about three minutes on foot; Hakata station is sixteen minutes on foot or six by car. Fukuoka Airport is unusually close to the city centre for a major Japanese airport. The yatai food stalls Fukuoka is known for are in the same few streets, and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and the Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art are nearby.
If you are weighing ease of arrival rather than number of shops, Nakasu beats everywhere else on this page.
Beppu is nine minutes on foot from Beppu station, by the bay. Takegawara Onsen — a public bathhouse that is a registered national cultural property — stands in the same few streets, which makes Beppu the easiest of these towns to fold into a hot-spring trip.
Hokkaido and Tohoku — 8 shops
| Town | Confirmed | Shops in town |
|---|---|---|
| Susukino, Sapporo | 7 | 21 |
| Asahikawa, Hokkaido | 1 | 1 |
Susukino has a subway station inside the district and is about forty minutes from New Chitose Airport. It is Sapporo's nightlife quarter, so it fits into an evening without any special planning.
Elsewhere — 17 shops
| Town | Confirmed | Shops in town |
|---|---|---|
| Hiroshima | 6 | 12 |
| Niigata | 3 | 8 |
| Takamatsu, Kagawa | 3 | 8 |
| Tokushima | 2 | 7 |
| Katayamazu, Ishikawa | 1 | 5 |
| Morioka, Iwate | 1 | 1 |
| Fukui | 1 | 3 |
These are worth knowing about mainly if your trip already takes you there. Katayamazu is a hot-spring town on the Ishikawa coast, so the Ogoto logistics apply: assume you will need a car or a pickup.
How to use this list
- Pick the town from your itinerary, not the other way round. Travelling across Japan for a shop is rarely worth it when the shop may be fully booked.
- Open the shop list and find the shops in that town. Every entry links to the shop's own site.
- Check the shop's site yourself before you travel. Our confirmation is from a monthly check, not from today.
- Work out the money before you go. The advertised price is usually only part of it — see what a soapland actually costs.
- Work out the journey. Some districts are a walk; some need a car or a pickup — see getting there.
- Read the etiquette before the door, not after — see what not to get wrong.
How this list is kept up to date
We re-check every shop's own website on the first of each month, and we record the date of the last check on the shop list. A shop is added when it says publicly that it accepts international customers, and it is removed when that statement disappears from its site. The counts on this page are rebuilt from the same records, so they move with the list.
We do not take a shop's word from a third party, we do not guess from a language switcher alone where the rest of the site contradicts it, and we do not list a shop that has said it does not accept foreign customers. That last rule is the reason this list is shorter than you might like — and the reason you can act on it.