Foreign Airbnb guests soar 40% in Japan

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Foreign Airbnb guests soar 40% in Japan

Around 4 million foreign visitors to Japan used Airbnb's service to stay in private homes during the year ended in March, an increase of about 40%.

Airbnb's site listed roughly 49,000 lodgings in Japan as of April, up about 50% on the year. More foreign tourists seem to be using the U.S.-based company's service as Japan moves toward enacting a law allowing residents nationwide to offer their homes for lodging.

The Japan National Tourism Organization says 24.8 million people visited the country during the year ended in March, including the estimated figure for the final month. Though Airbnb tracks stays by locations rather than by individuals -- one person staying at three different lodgings would count as three guests -- a simple comparison suggests that around 15% of the visitors may have used the service.

Home sharing can boost more than tourism in Japan

Legalization could bring life to vacant homes and lift construction sector

Home-sharing services such as Airbnb are illegal in Japan, except in Osaka and Ota Ward of Tokyo. A move is now afoot to change the law and advocates should persevere as such services could provide a needed support to the country's growing tourism sector ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Japanese cabinet endorsed a proposed bill to legalize home sharing on March 10, but the outlook for parliamentary approval is not yet clear. As drafted, the bill would allow residential rentals nationally for up to 180 days per year.

The doubling of annual inbound tourist flows to 24 million since 2013 has already led to a shortage of hotel beds. Yet the country aims to attract 40 million visitors annually by 2020.

Japan has 846,300 hotel rooms, but their distribution doesn't necessarily fit current needs. Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto together account for just 21% of the total room inventory. The next-largest concentrations are in Nagano, Hokkaido, Shizuoka and Okinawa with a combined 18% of rooms.

Hotel occupancy reached 82% in Tokyo and Osaka last year. Operating largely under official radar, U.S.-based Airbnb offers bookings at around 48,000 homes in Japan. Occupancy rates for these are among the company's highest globally, at around 70%. Airbnb hosted some 3.7 million visitors in Japan, nearly tripled the volume for 2015.

<Nikkei>