Minpaku rules in Japan. What the law asks of you, and how to keep up.

01Three ways to host nightly guests legally

In Japan you can’t take paying guests for short stays in a home without one of three permissions. They differ in how you apply, how many nights you can sell and where you may operate. Most operators with a handful of apartments start with minpaku; buildings run as a lodging business all year usually need a hotel or ryokan licence.

Special-zone minpaku exists only in a few designated areas, such as Tokyo’s Ota ward and parts of Osaka, and some authorities have tightened it or stopped taking new applications. Check the current position with the city before you plan around it. The rest of this guide is about the minpaku route.

02The notification

You file through the government’s online minpaku system (民泊制度運営システム) or on paper. It goes to the prefectural governor, except where a city or ward handles minpaku itself — Tokyo’s 23 wards and most large cities do. Once it is accepted you receive a notification number (届出番号), which must appear on every listing. Platforms check it and take down listings without one.

What you attach varies by authority, so start from your ward’s own checklist. Most ask for:

• A floor plan showing the guest rooms, kitchen, bathroom and toilet.
• Proof that you may use the home this way: the property registration, or the owner’s written consent to sublet (転貸承諾書) if you rent it.
• For a condominium, proof that the building’s management rules (管理規約) don’t prohibit minpaku.
• The fire department’s notice that the home meets fire-safety rules (消防法令適合通知書).
• Your own papers: ID or company registration, and a declaration that you aren’t disqualified.

The law also sets rules for equipment and space: safety measures such as emergency lighting and marked escape routes (relaxed when the host lives there and the guest rooms are small), and at least 3.3 m² of floor space per guest in the rooms they use.

03The 180-night cap

A notified home may host guests for no more than 180 nights a year. The year runs from noon on 1 April to noon on the next 1 April, and each noon-to-noon period in which a guest stayed counts as one. The count is per home and across every channel: a night sold on Airbnb and a night sold on your own website are the same night against the same cap.

180 is the national maximum. Prefectures and municipalities can cut it by ordinance (条例) — by area, by season or by day of the week. In Tokyo, several wards limit minpaku in residential zones to weekends and holidays or to certain periods, and limits near schools are common. They differ from ward to ward and they change, so read your ward’s ordinance before you plan a calendar.

Running the count in practice

• Count booked nights as well as nights already stayed. A cap you’ll hit in February is visible in October.
• Set a warning well before the limit, and decide in advance which months the remaining nights are for.
• When you reach the cap, block every channel at once. A forgotten calendar feed is how homes end up over it.
• Plan the other 185 nights. Letting the home on a contract of a month or more isn’t minpaku, so many operators fill the rest of the year with monthly residents. The monthly contracts guide covers how.

04The guest register and ID checks

For every stay you keep a guest register (宿泊者名簿) covering every guest, not only the one who booked: name, address, occupation and the dates of the stay. For a foreign guest with no address in Japan it also records nationality and passport number, and the guidelines ask you to keep a copy of the passport with the register.

Identity is confirmed face to face at check-in, or by a remote method that is equivalent — typically a video call, or a tablet at the property, where you can see the guest and the document clearly and know they are at the home. A passport photo sent by email on its own is not the same thing. Check your authority’s current guidance on what counts as equivalent.

Keep the register for three years, where it can be produced on request — at the home or at your office, on paper or electronically.

05The report every two months

Every two months you report, for each home, the nights guests stayed, the number of guests, the total of guest-nights (延べ宿泊者数) and the number of guests by nationality. You file it online through the same government system, and you report even when nobody stayed.

The figures should agree with the guest register and with your night count. The quickest way to get there is to produce all three from the same check-in records, not from three spreadsheets.

06Signs, guests and neighbours

A host also carries a set of everyday duties. None of them is hard; they are easy to forget across several homes.

• The sign (標識). Display the official sign with your notification number at the entrance, where it can be seen from outside.
• Explaining the rules. Tell guests, in a language they understand, how the equipment works, how to get there, what to do in a fire or an earthquake, and the house rules on noise, rubbish and smoking.
• Rubbish. Guests’ rubbish is business waste (事業系廃棄物). It can’t go out with household collection; use a contractor or the ward’s business-waste scheme.
• Complaints. Answer neighbours’ complaints promptly, including at night, and keep a record.
• Hygiene. Ventilate, clean between stays and change the linen for every new guest.

A house handbook in the guest’s own language covers most of the explaining, and cuts down the late-night calls at the same time.

07When you need a management company

If you don’t live in the home while guests stay (家主不在型) — beyond short absences such as shopping — or the home has more than five guest rooms, you must entrust its management to a registered housing accommodation management company (住宅宿泊管理業者), registered with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

The management company takes on the day-to-day duties above: guests’ hygiene and safety, the register, explaining the rules and handling complaints. The notification and the bi-monthly report stay with the host, so agree in writing who prepares what. A company that meets the requirements can register as a management company itself, and many operators running several homes do.

If you sell through a platform, it must be a registered intermediary (住宅宿泊仲介業者) or a travel agency. The big platforms are registered; check before you list anywhere smaller.

Before your first guest

1. Confirm the zoning and your ward’s ordinance allow minpaku at the address.
2. Get the owner’s or the management association’s consent in writing.
3. Get the fire department’s compliance notice and install what it asks for.
4. File the notification and put the number on every listing.
5. Put up the sign, write the house handbook, arrange rubbish collection.
6. Decide who keeps the register, counts the nights and files the report — and when.