Why dose the japanese has the culture, naking in the public bathroom and spa?

Question

I just curious, my sister married japanese guy and she said people there don't feel shy to be naked in the public bathroom and spa. its called "Onzen?", where people in every generations come to bathing together in the pool, natural spa, hot spring or minaral pool etc.

Not : my sister married the japanese guy, one time I visited japan and I find that there has the strange culture, for example. in every countries, everyone dress up themselves at home before come into the wedding? but in japan, people bring their cloths to the hotel and change their cloth in the room, where the hotel provide it, for all guests to change their cloth there..................it was surprized me that there is no privat room for each of the guests, to change their cloth. when someone told me to change my cloth, she brought me into the big room where a lot of guests from the different wedding were changing inside there, some was naked, make-up or dressing.............it isn't what I espected it in oriental culture. I'm muallaf ( new muslim student) and I couldn't accept the culture like that. so decided to go to the woman toilet and change my cloth in the toilet.

Answer 1

Because it's their culture. They don't mind nudity for the same reason you value modesty. It's just an old tradition. Cultural values differ everywhere. It's called diversity.

Answer 2

well i think the us has nudity issues.......i forgot why, but my japanese teacher used to go to those public spas too, and she told me that she was basically banned from them cuz she had a tattoo, and if u have tattoos you can't use the spas.  

Answer 3

I'm not Japanese but u know every country has their own culture trends & we can't change it. Its like asking you, why muslims are wearing scarves on your head.

Answer 4

Keep in mind that they're only naked in front of members of their own s*x. To them that's not a big deal at all. Onsens are usually segregated by s*x. It would be very rare for the people to be naked in mixed company, although there are onsens called "konyoku" in which the men and women are naked together. However in that situation it is considered proper etiquette to cover your privates with a towel, and women usually cover their b*****s as well, so there is really no display of the erotic parts to other people. I never heard of the mixed gender changing room for weddings though.

Answer 5

its just normal for us, we dont think anything of having a bath in public. its not like people stare at your butt for ages, its nothing they havent seen before anyway. those baths are there so that everyone can have a nice experience, not so you can check out your 'competition' or anything. every culture has something that foreigners would consider strange or weird, thats the beauty of diversity in cultures.

Answer 6

Public bathing dates all the back to ancient Egypt. For centuries cleanliness and public bathing have been a part of Japanese culture. Typically cultures that for whatever reason or another have no shame or embarrassment about the naked body have no issue with communal bathing. One place where where communal bathing is found in American culture is in the Military. Also in the locker rooms of sport teams communal bathing is acceptable as well.  

Answer 7

They haven't been burdened with the guilt and shame of the human body that Westerners have.  The baths are good for relaxing or for social gatherings among friends.  The tattoo thing mentioned above was to keep undesirables (yakuza) out of the more family friendly surroundings.