For foreign tourists to Japan, staying at traditional ryokan inns is a popular way to enjoy their trips, but home-sharing services are growing as an alternative form of accommodation.
Legally speaking, some home-sharing services fall in a gray zone because existing accommodation rules were drafted before such services began on the Internet.
Following are questions and answers about home-sharing services in Japan.
What has prompted the rise in home-sharing services in Japan?
The rising popularity can be traced to the fast-growing U.S.-based agency Airbnb Inc., which mediates between “hosts” offering to share their homes and “guests” seeking to stay in them.
Founded in 2008, Airbnb provides its services from its website, which has about 50 million users and lists 1.5 million homes in more than 190 countries. In Japan, 16,000 homes — a threefold increase on last year — are registered with the service, the firm said, while the number of foreign tourists who used the service in Japan shot up fivefold in the same period.
Tokyo-based venture minma Inc. launched a similar site called Roomstay in April, while another, Tomarina, is run by Tokyo-based Tomareru Inc.
The growing demand for home-sharing may be attributable to the rapid increase in inbound tourists, as many users who book stays via Airbnb are foreign travelers, according to the company.