Woke up today thinking about how much money hotels in Japan hotels are leaving on the table because of their tattoo rules.

One of the biggest attractions for vacation in Japan are the hot spring baths. A majority of hotels have rules barring people with tattoos from using the bath.

Estimations:

• estimated percentage of Americans with tattoos is 30%
• estimated visitors from America to Japan is between 1 and 1.5 million

That means around 400,000 Americans that visit Japan can't use the hot spring baths. Most don't travel alone so it's probably likely their group will choose a hotel that they can all enjoy together.

Let's use an easy price, like $100 for one night, to calculate.

400,000 people * $100 = $40,000,000 (or ¥5,981,400,000)

Rooms are more expensive than that usually. That number doesn't include food and drinks even. That's a lot of money left on the table because of body art rules.