Chanpon

There is a lawsuit pending to force some Hokkaido onsen to allow foreigners to steep in their hot waters. Currently some onsen in the town of Otaru post signs banning non-Japanese bathers. The plantiffs contend this is illegal according to anti-discrimination articles in the Japanese Constitution and the "UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination."

Getting naked with non-Japanese strangers might have been seen as too intimate, but the issue seems to have been visiting drunk Russian sailors more than assimilated gaijin yearning for relaxation. So far, at least one cross-cultural friendship has emerged from the controversy - recent news accounts of that relationship brought this issue back into the media spotlight.

Picture from article in the Kumamoto Nichi Nichi Shinbun, dated 21 January, 2002