Korean YouTuber faces backlash for filming in no-camera mixed-gender hot spring in Japan
The creator acknowledged the Hokkaido facility's recording ban but said she began filming after seeing other bathers use cameras.
A Korean female YouTuber films in an area where photography is prohibited at a hot spring in Hokkaido, Japan.
SCREEN CAPTURE
A Korean female YouTuber has come under fire after footage surfaced showing her filming inside a mixed-gender hot spring in Hokkaido, Japan, despite a ban on photography and video recording.
Screenshots from a video she uploaded in January spread across several online communities Wednesday, drawing criticism over her decision to film in the restricted area.
The video, titled “My first mixed-gender bath and nude outdoor hot spring experience in Hokkaido" (translated), shows the YouTuber visiting a hot spring lodging facility in Hokkaido and trying its outdoor baths and a mixed-gender bathing area.
The controversy centers on footage filmed inside the mixed-gender bath, where recording was prohibited. The YouTuber nevertheless entered with a camera and filmed inside.
“Normally, you can’t film when there are other people around, right?” she said in the video. “It’s a no-filming area, but there were people filming who genuinely didn’t care at all whether I went in or not.”
She described how openly the other bathers were recording.
“Normally, when you do something you’re not supposed to do, you become conscious of the people around you,” she said. “But they really filmed without paying any attention to me whatsoever.”
The YouTuber said she eventually decided to join in.
“So I thought, ‘I might as well enjoy it too,’ and now I’m joining in,” she said. “Thanks to that, it has basically turned into a party where everyone is enjoying themselves. I wondered if there was something I didn’t know, because everyone who came in afterward was filming too.”
The YouTuber claimed that she began recording only after other bathers had already started filming inside. Criticism continued, however, since her own remarks made clear that she knew recording was prohibited at the facility.
Online commenters called her actions “a national embarrassment” and “thoughtless.” Others said the privacy of hot spring users should have been respected and criticized her for filming so openly, then posting the footage online.
BY JANG GU-SEUL [kim.hayoon1@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
