Debito Arudou Beat Bathhouse Discrimination

In 2000, a white American-born man named Debito Arudou became a naturalized Japanese citizen, yet the Yunohana Onsen bathhouse in Hokkaido still refused him entry because of his foreign appearance. The manager acknowledged Arudou's citizenship but said his appearance could drive Japanese customers away. In 2001, Arudou and two men named Kenneth Lee Sutherland and Olaf Karthaus sued the bathhouse operator for racial discrimination. The Sapporo District Court declared the blanket exclusion illegal and ordered the bath house to pay each plaintiff 1 million yen, about $25,000 combined, with higher courts later upholding the ruling.

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