Tag - minpaku

 
Menu
Search
 
September 27, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

MINPAKU

Tourists in the Dotonbori area in Osaka. Calls are growing in Osaka Prefecture for a review of <i>minpaku</i> private lodging services for tourists, as locals face the issue of bad manners by some foreign guests.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2025
Review of minpaku private lodgings sought in Osaka
Issues linked to such services became one of the focal points in the July election for the House of Councillors.
An undated photo supplied by a resident of an apartment complex in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward shows people who appear to be staff members offering illegal private lodging services. Their faces are blurred for privacy reasons.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2025
Around 250 takedown requests made in fiscal 2024 over illegal private lodgings
Operators of private lodgings must notify prefectural governments of their businesses, ensure sanitary conditions and handle complaints.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2023
Deep in the countryside, a glimpse of Airbnb's Japan strategy
The short-term lodging service is seeking to build links with communities outside of well-beaten tourist pathways and entice travelers to rural areas.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Oct 4, 2020
Private renters in Sapporo launch domestic travel campaign as global travel stalls
In the six months to August, 709 minpaku properties closed down in Sapporo, their number down to around 80 percent of their peak.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Feb 17, 2020
Bureaucrats are to blame for copy-happy hotel clerks
With data privacy being a huge issue, you may feel uneasy about hotels photocopying your passport. However, Colin P.A. Jones says the rule is more about bureaucratic culture than privacy.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2020
Marriott has no plans to offer private lodging service in Japan
Marriott International Inc. has no plans to operate a private lodging service in Japan for the time being due to strict regulations, Rajeev Menon, a senior official of the U.S. hotel chain, said in a recent interview.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2019
Airbnb listings in Japan rebound after regulatory freeze
Airbnb Inc. says it's back in business in Japan, a year after stricter short-term lodging regulations forced it to freeze a major portion of its listings in the country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Apr 17, 2019
Know your rights when checking in at an Airbnb
Last year, the government passed a law covering minpaku, which is when people rent out space on their properties to travelers (a la Airbnb). The law is part of an effort to regulate accommodations amid a tourism boom ahead of the 2020 Olympics.
BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2019
Top business news of 2018
The Japan Times newsroom selected the following business news stories as the most important of 2018.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 26, 2018
Citing G20 security issues, Osaka shuts down over 80% of private lodging operations
Between June and September, over 80 percent of Osaka minpaku private lodgings have been ordered closed by the city, Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura said earlier this month.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jul 13, 2018
Large percentage of private lodgings in Okinawa vanish after new minpaku law takes effect
With its abundant, pristine beaches and renowned cultural and historic sites, it's little surprise that Okinawa Prefecture became a hot market for minpaku (private lodging) services.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 30, 2018
Implementation of minpaku laws lambasted
One year ago, the Kasumigaseki Watch column in the monthly business magazine Keizaikai (August 2017) noted that while the government has set an annual target of 40 million foreign visitors by 2020, the tourism ministry was unable to formulate an effective strategy due to "insufficient" staistical data....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 27, 2018
Minpaku law could leave tourists to Japan without beds
Onerous licensing process for private lodging won't stop bad operators, but it will put off honest would-be entrepreneurs.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2018
Kyoto ramps up crackdown on illegal P2P lodging after sluggish start to minpaku law
Police and city officials on Monday agreed to increase closures of illegal private lodging facilities just 10 days after a new national law restricting their operation took effect.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2018
Review 'minpaku' regulations to spur growth
The government should ensure that regulations don't hamper the growth of the minpaku industry, which is contributing ot the sharp increase in inbound tourism.
Autumn to be cut short as harsh winter arrives suddenly
A short-lived autumn is expected this year, with temperatures staying unseasonably high through October before plunging in late November, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Woman in Japan arrested for keeping daughter's body in freezer for 20 years
Police have arrested a 75-year-old woman after she allegedly confessed to keeping her adult daughter's body in a freezer for 20 years.
JICA scraps Africa ‘hometown’ agreement after migration mixup
The “Africa Hometown Initiative,” announced by the Japan International Cooperation Agency at an African development conference in Yokohama in August, sought to foster exchanges that would help bridge four municipalities in Japan with four countries in Africa.
India aims to challenge global shipbuilding giants
Cargo ships are docked in Navi Mumbai, India, in February. Only 5% of India's exports and imports are carried on Indian-flagged ships.
Court rules sex change appearance requirement unconstitutional
The Sapporo Family Court on Friday ruled that a legal provision requiring individuals to undergo genital surgery to change their legal gender is unconstitutional and invalid.
Japanese corporate boards have changed dramatically in recent years
Most Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Section companies have independent directors now.
As Japan keeps buying gas, Aboriginal Australians pay the price
Paulina “Jedda” Puruntatameri with Antonia Burke and Tiwi fisher Clinton offshore of Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands, in Australia's Northern Territory. Together with other Tiwi, Jedda has been campaigning for years to stop Australian company Santos and its backers, including Japanese investors, from drilling for natural gas at the Barossa gas field.
Who’s who in the LDP presidential race?
(Clockwise from top left) Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi; former foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi; Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi; former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi; and former minister of state for economic security Sanae Takaichi
Tax-advantaged investments no lost cause for U.S. residents of Japan
While some American taxpayers assume they are ineligible to participate in Japan’s tax-deferred savings schemes, certified public accountant Rick Gundlach says that this is no longer the case.
Aichi Triennale’s message from the world: Free Palestine
“Between Currents and Bloom,” an eye-popping crocheted seascape by Indonesian artist Mulyana, dazzles with Instagram-ready cuteness while recalling a vibrant ocean now threatened by warming seas.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan
By Christoph Sponsel

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER