Japan Chooses Onsen Culture as a Candidate for UNESCO Heritage
On 28 November 2025 a government panel selected hot-spring bathing, with kagura ritual dance, for nomination to UNESCO's intangible heritage list. Registration of onsen culture is targeted for 2030.
Japan has chosen its hot-spring culture as a candidate for UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A government panel made the selection on 28 November 2025, together with kagura, a ritual dance performed at shrines. The government said it aims to see kagura registered in 2028 and onsen culture in 2030. The progress of the nomination is shown on UNESCO’s official intangible heritage site.
What is being nominated
The nomination does not concern particular springs or buildings. It concerns a custom: the habit, shared across the country, of bathing in naturally heated water to restore body and mind. The government’s definition includes the festivals and religious ceremonies associated with hot springs in many regions. Japan has about 3,000 hot-spring resorts.
The campaign began with the prefectures. In November 2022 a group of governors, which came to represent 44 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, was formed to seek the listing, and originally hoped for registration in 2028. Its members argued that onsen were a way of life and that recognition would help hot-spring towns, many of which are in ageing rural areas. They pointed to Finland, whose sauna culture was inscribed in 2020.
Why 2030
Japan already has 23 entries on the list, the most recent being traditional sake brewing in December 2024. Countries with many entries are examined only once every two years, so candidates must wait their turn. Calligraphy is ahead in the queue, followed by kagura, and onsen culture comes after.
For travellers
Nothing changes for the visitor in the meantime, but the bid is a reminder that a hot spring in Japan is more than a hotel amenity. The culture is best understood in the towns that grew up around the water. At Kinosaki Onsen guests walk between seven public bathhouses in cotton robes. In Nagano the baths are shared with the snow monkeys of Jigokudani. The older tradition of toji, a stay of a week or more taken as a cure, survives in simple inns in the mountains of the north.
The etiquette is the same everywhere. Bathers wash thoroughly at the taps before entering the water, go in without swimwear, and keep the small towel out of the bath.