Last reviewed: 27 July 2026. Japan's national guidance changed on 15 July 2026, twelve days before this review. If you have read an older guide, the section on what municipalities can do to you is now out of date.
The short version
- Short-term renting a home in Japan is legal, but only under one of three specific legal routes. Operating outside them means running an unlicensed hotel, which is a criminal matter.
- The standard route is minpaku, under the Private Lodging Business Act. You file a notification, get a number, display it, and are capped at 180 nights per year.
- The minpaku year runs from 1 April, not from January.
- Municipalities have always been able to restrict further, and in July 2026 the national government said they may now restrict to zero. That is a local ban in designated areas.
- The same July 2026 guidance addresses mandatory ICT-based management. Remote operation is being formalised rather than discouraged.
- Existing properties are not automatically safe. Where minpaku is already densely concentrated and causing problems, the guidance contemplates restrictions reaching existing operations, not just new ones.
- Complaints drove this. In Tokyo's Shinjuku ward, noise and rubbish complaints reportedly went from 70 in the 2021 financial year to 924 in 2025.
- Accommodation tax now applies to licensed minpaku in a growing list of cities, and Kyoto's rates rose sharply on 1 March 2026.
The three legal routes
This is the part most guides handle badly, and getting it wrong is expensive. Japan has three separate frameworks and they are not interchangeable.
1. Minpaku, under the Private Lodging Business Act
The Private Lodging Business Act (住宅宿泊事業法, Jūtaku Shukuhaku Jigyō Hō), in force since June 2018, is the framework most people mean by "minpaku."
It works as an exemption. Normally, providing paid lodging requires permission under the Inns and Hotels Act. A person who has filed a notification under Article 3, paragraph 1 of the Private Lodging Business Act may operate without that permission, provided use does not exceed 180 days a year.
You notify, rather than apply for a licence. The notification goes to the prefectural governor, or in practice to the mayor of a city with an established health centre (ordinance-designated cities and core cities) or to the mayor of a special ward, which includes all 23 wards of Tokyo. Those same authorities supervise you and set local ordinances.
The dwelling must meet requirements for equipment and residence, including a kitchen, bathroom, toilet and washing facilities, and a commonly applied floor area standard of 3.3 square metres per guest.
You must also take specified measures: securing hygiene, explaining noise prevention to guests, responding to complaints from neighbours, and creating and maintaining a guest list.
2. The Inns and Hotels Act (旅館業法)
The full lodging licence. Higher barrier to entry, more demanding on fire safety, building standards and zoning, but no annual day cap. If you intend to run a property as accommodation year-round, this is the route, and the simplified lodging category (簡易宿所) is the one most small operators use.
3. National Strategic Special Zone minpaku (特区民泊)
Under the National Strategic Special Zone Act, designated municipalities could operate relaxed rules including year-round operation with no 180-day cap, subject to a minimum stay length.
Important 2026 change. Osaka City, which accounted for more than 90% of all special zone minpaku nationally, stopped accepting new applications on 29 May 2026. Already-certified facilities may continue operating, but anyone starting new in Osaka must now choose between the Inns and Hotels Act and the Private Lodging Business Act.
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, About the Private Lodging Business Act (official English)
At a glance
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Is Airbnb legal in Japan? | Yes, if the property is registered under one of the three routes |
| What is the standard cap? | 180 nights per year |
| When does the year start? | 1 April |
| Do I need a licence or a notification? | A notification for minpaku; a licence under the Inns and Hotels Act |
| Who do I notify? | Prefectural governor, or the city or special ward mayor |
| Must I display a number? | Yes, the notification number (届出番号) |
| Can my city restrict me further? | Yes, and since July 2026 potentially to zero days |
| Floor space per guest | Commonly 3.3 m² |
| Is there accommodation tax? | Yes in many cities, and it applies to licensed minpaku |
| What if I operate unregistered? | Unlicensed hotel operation, a criminal offence |
The big 2026 change: zero-day regulation
This is the development that matters most, and it is very recent.
On 15 July 2026, the Japan Tourism Agency, together with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, issued a joint notice to all local governments titled, in translation, Technical advice concerning zero-day regulation of notified dwellings under the Private Lodging Business Act.
The notice provides technical advice under the Local Autonomy Act on two things: zero-day regulation of notified dwellings, and mandatory management using ICT.
What that actually means
The Private Lodging Business Act has always allowed municipalities to restrict minpaku by ordinance, and many did. Tokyo wards restricted weekday operation. Kyoto restricted certain areas to off-peak periods.
What the national government had consistently said was not appropriate was setting the permitted number of operating days to zero, because that would effectively nullify the law locally. The July 2026 notice reverses that position and treats zero-day regulation as available.
In practical terms, a municipality can now designate specific areas, such as quiet residential neighbourhoods or the surroundings of schools and educational facilities, where minpaku may operate for zero days a year. That is a local ban, applied zone by zone rather than city-wide.
Reporting on the notice also indicates that in areas where minpaku is already densely concentrated and causing problems, restrictions may extend to existing properties rather than only to new entrants.
Three caveats worth understanding
Technical advice is not law. Advice issued under the Local Autonomy Act is not binding on municipalities and does not itself change the Private Lodging Business Act. What it does is remove the national objection that previously stopped councils from legislating this way. Expect ordinance changes rather than an immediate national shift.
Nothing has been banned yet, nationally. This is not a nationwide abolition of minpaku. It expands what individual municipalities may choose to do.
The effect will be highly local. Commercial zones and tourist districts are likely to be treated very differently from residential streets. Where your property sits, down to the zone, now matters more than it ever has.
Sources: Japan Tourism Agency press release, Notification to local governments regarding minpaku (Japanese, 15 July 2026), and the accompanying press release document (PDF)
Why the government changed position
Worth understanding, because it tells you where enforcement is heading.
Complaints rose sharply as the sector grew. In Tokyo's Shinjuku ward, complaints about noise and rubbish reportedly rose from 70 in the 2021 financial year to 924 in the 2025 financial year, more than a tenfold increase in four years.
Meanwhile the sector kept expanding. Notified minpaku dwellings nationally reached 40,745 as of 15 May 2026, roughly eight years after the law took effect, and that figure excludes special zone minpaku and simplified lodging premises.
The recurring complaints are consistent: noise, rubbish disposal, guest behaviour, and operators who cannot be reached when something goes wrong. That last one is why the same notice addresses ICT-based management.
The 180-day cap, and what operators do about it
The cap is on nights provided, counted across a year that runs from 1 April. Once you reach 180, your calendar closes.
Three common responses:
Switch to longer lets for the balance of the year. Stays that fall outside the definition of the lodging business, typically monthly rentals, do not consume your allowance. This is the most common approach and it changes your operation from guest turnover to tenancy management.
Move to the Inns and Hotels Act. Higher compliance burden, but no cap. Sensible if the property can meet the standards and the economics justify it.
Accept the cap and price for it. Concentrating your 180 nights in peak season is a legitimate strategy, particularly in Kyoto and Tokyo.
Note that municipal ordinances can reduce the cap below 180, and can restrict which days or seasons you may operate. Check your specific ward or city, not just the national rule.
Guest records and the rules on management
Minpaku operators must create and maintain a guest list as part of the required measures under the Act. Separately, the July 2026 guidance addresses mandatory ICT-based management, which formalises remote monitoring and management arrangements rather than treating them as a workaround.
This is a meaningful shift in tone. For several years the direction of travel was suspicion of absent operators. The current framing is that remote management is acceptable where it is done properly, with the technology in place to identify guests, respond to problems and demonstrate what happened.
Practically, that means an operator who can show who entered, when, and that there was a working channel for complaints is in a much stronger position than one who cannot.
Tax
Accommodation tax (宿泊税)
A growing number of Japanese municipalities levy an accommodation tax, charged per person per night and collected by the property at the time of payment. It applies to licensed minpaku, not only to hotels.
Tokyo introduced its version in 2002, Osaka in 2017, Kyoto in 2018. Roughly seventeen prefectures, cities, towns and villages levied one as of 2026, and more are being added, including Sapporo from April 2026.
Current headline rates:
| City | Per person, per night |
|---|---|
| Tokyo | Exempt under ¥10,000; ¥100 from ¥10,000; ¥200 from ¥15,000 |
| Osaka Prefecture | Exempt under ¥5,000; then ¥200, ¥400 or ¥500 by band |
| Kyoto City | Five bands from ¥200 up to ¥10,000, from 1 March 2026 |
Kyoto changed dramatically. From 1 March 2026, Kyoto moved to a five-band structure. The top band, for stays of ¥100,000 or more per night, rose to ¥10,000 per person per night, roughly a tenfold increase on the previous maximum and the highest accommodation tax in Japan. Kyoto City Council approved the ordinance in March 2025 and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications confirmed it in October 2025. Kyoto's tax explicitly covers dwellings notified under the Private Lodging Business Act.
Bands are usually based on the room rate excluding consumption tax, so check how your own pricing maps to them.
Consumption tax and income tax
Japan's 10% consumption tax applies separately from accommodation tax. Rental income from minpaku is taxable and must be declared. Non-resident owners have additional considerations, and Japanese tax treatment of property income is genuinely intricate, so take advice from a Japanese tax accountant rather than working from a guide.
Sources: Kyoto City accommodation tax page and Osaka Prefecture accommodation tax page (Japanese). For Tokyo, see the Tokyo Metropolitan Tax Bureau's accommodation tax pages.
Buildings, neighbours and management rules
Two constraints that catch out foreign buyers in particular.
Condominium bylaws. A Japanese condominium's management association (管理組合) can prohibit minpaku through its bylaws, entirely independently of what national law and municipal ordinance permit. Many have. Check the bylaws before purchase, not after.
Neighbourhood notification. Some municipalities require, by ordinance or through building rules, that you notify neighbours or the neighbourhood association before starting. This is part of a broader emphasis on local harmony, and skipping it tends to generate exactly the complaints that lead to ordinance tightening.
Penalties
Before the 2018 law, operating a short-term rental without a licence meant operating a hotel without a licence, a criminal offence. That has not changed for anyone operating outside the three frameworks.
Within the frameworks, consequences for non-compliance include business improvement orders, suspension, cancellation of your notification, and fines. Exceeding your day cap, failing to display your notification number, and failing to maintain required records are all breaches.
Enforcement is also getting easier. Platforms are required to check registration, and a national centralised management system was reported as coming online in April 2026, which makes mismatches between what is notified and what is actually operating far easier to detect.
Because penalty levels sit across several instruments and are periodically revised, confirm current figures with the Japan Tourism Agency or your local authority.
A practical checklist
- Confirm which of the three legal routes your property can actually use
- Check your zone, not just your city, against current and proposed ordinances
- Check whether your municipality has signalled any zero-day designation since July 2026
- Read the condominium management association bylaws
- File your notification and display the notification number on every listing
- Confirm floor area per guest and the required facilities
- Set up your guest list and record-keeping
- Establish a working complaints channel and be reachable, including out of hours
- Track nights against the 180 cap on an April-to-April year
- Register for and collect any applicable accommodation tax
- Plan what the property does for the other 185 days
Verified official sources
National
- Japan Tourism Agency, About the Private Lodging Business Act (English)
- Japan Tourism Agency, July 2026 notice on zero-day regulation (Japanese)
- The accompanying press release document (PDF)
- Japan Tourism Agency, English site
Municipal accommodation tax
Named, not linked
Cited above but without a verified permalink. Search by name.
- Private Lodging Business Act (住宅宿泊事業法), Act No. 65 of 2017, in force June 2018
- Inns and Hotels Act (旅館業法)
- National Strategic Special Zone Act (国家戦略特別区域法)
- Technical advice concerning zero-day regulation of notified dwellings under the Private Lodging Business Act, issued 15 July 2026
- Private Lodging Business Act enforcement guidelines (住宅宿泊事業法施行要領), published by the Japan Tourism Agency
- Tokyo Metropolitan Tax Bureau, accommodation tax
- Your own prefecture, city or special ward ordinance, which is the binding document for day limits
Important disclaimer
This article is not legal, tax or financial advice. It is general information written for a non-specialist reader, by a key management company rather than a law firm.
Japan's minpaku framework is national, but the rules that will actually determine whether you can operate are municipal, and in some cases apply zone by zone within a single ward. The July 2026 technical advice on zero-day regulation is expected to produce a wave of ordinance changes through 2026 and 2027, and some of those may affect existing operations rather than only new ones. Accommodation taxes are being introduced and increased in more cities. Condominium bylaws can override everything else for your specific building.
Verify your position against your own municipality's current ordinance and the official sources above before acting. For a purchase or a business decision of any size, engage a Japanese lawyer, licensed administrative procedures specialist (行政書士) or tax accountant who works in your target municipality.
If you spot an error, an omission, or something that needs updating, please tell us and we will fix it.
