TOKYO—On June 15, the Japanese government instituted an effective ban on vacation home-sharing in an about-face of its previous policy to accommodate the inflow of foreign tourists toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Implementation of the Home Accommodation Business Law (abbreviated as Minpaku-ho) shows the ignorance and ineptitude of Japanese bureaucracy and lawmakers, who initially jumped on the bandwagon of U.S. vacation rental sharing services to ease the inevitable shortage of hotel accommodation during the summer Olympic games, only to be stung later by Japanese voters who had complained about noise and expressed general dislike of foreign tourists.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and its Tourist Agency introduced the Minpaku-ho, relevant ministry and agency ordinances and guidelines, making the regulations under the law to supersede the 1946 Accommodations Law governing western-style hotels and traditional Japanese inns. Home owners and businesses had been operating vacation home-sharing services at their facilities from the mid-2010, spearheaded by airbnb.
The new regulations do not ban vacation rental home outright but make it difficult and inconvenient to operate facilities as the maximum duration for operating them is limited to 180 days per year. The limit, according to the ministry, is to discourage errant businesses to operate home-sharing facilities without obtaining government permits – which is the case in the ancient capital of Kyoto, causing a whole bevy of problems to local residents including noise, littering, and violence.
The ministry argues that by requiring vacation home-sharing operators to be regulated under the law, away from the old Accommodations Law, ‘sound and serious’ operators – both home owners and businesses – are expected to be able to prosper to offer services needed by foreign tourists.
In fact, the Accommodations Law, which enables almost any party to obtain permits, did not restrict locations and other details of facilities: It was the reason why once world-famous ‘love hotels’ sprouted up in the hearts of prestigious residential districts of Tokyo and elsewhere.
Under the Minpaku-ho, service operators must post on the board outside their facilities their names and other details. The law also empowers municipalities to introduce tougher and details regulations than what it provides – as the city of Kyoto so demanded.
As of June 8, there were 2,707 applications to be registered as Minpaku operators, according to the Tourism Agency. Before the law took effect, tens of thousands of individuals and businesses were estimated to have operated vacation rental homes, mostly for foreign tourists. Literally all over Tokyo and big cities until then, there were what residents called the ‘nests’ of foreign tourists carting in and out large suitcases from the facilities.
For now, Kyoto residents may be breathing a sigh of relief thanks to the law. For Japanese bureaucrats and lawmakers that enforced the law while having proven with their about-face that they have become distant laggards of the modern internet and information society and are collaborators of big hotels, it’s not over. They need to address the problem of hotel roomshortages toward 2020 – and beyond.
Foreign tourists visiting Japan in 2017 grew 19.3 percent over 2016 to a record 28.691 million. The Shintaro Abe government wants to boost the number to 40 million by the end of 2020. Asian visitors, notably Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong nationals, account for 3/4thof the total visitors.
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