Many areas of Japan are assessing new travel-related fees to fund building out infrastructure to fend off overtourism. However, some Japanese citizens and residents are fuming, as the new fees apply to everyone – not just the out-of-towners.
Atami to levy lodging tax
The latest unrest comes as Atami, a popular onsen destination in Shizuoka Prefecture, says it’ll implement a new lodging tax. As FNN reports, the city of 31,000 people has instituted the tax starting on April 1st.
The Atami lodging tax assesses 200 yen ($1.37) per person per night. It’s a little lighter than Kyoto, which is charging 1,000 yen ($6.33) for most mid-range rooms and up to 10,000 yen ($63) for luxury rooms costing over 100,000 yen ($633) a night or more.
Most cities that have implemented some form of lodging tax call it an overtourism measure. The goal isn’t to prevent people from coming to Japan. Heaven forbid! After all, the country aims to welcome 40 million tourists by year’s end and 60 million by the 2030s.
Rather, the goal is to generate revenue that can fund response strategies, such as maintaining public locations and buffing up an area’s transportation infrastructure. Cities are also using the funds to support social programs as Japan’s population continues to age and dwindle.
However, some are fuming online because these taxes – including the Atami tax – are being levied equally on inbound tourists as well as Japanese citizens and residents. While trifling in Atami’s case, the additional fees feel like a kick in the teeth, given that hotels are already becoming more expensive (and harder to book). The tax also comes as the price of basic staples such as rice is going through the roof.
FNN interviewed Japanese citizens who were visiting Atami for their thoughts. Many were open to the fee – or, at least, resigned to it. But some, especially those with large families, said it’d lead them to consider limiting their Atami visits to a day trip instead.
The problem of discrimination
Some people wish these new fees would only apply to inbound tourists. That seems only fair, they argue, given the weak yen. Inbound travelers can afford it more easily than Japanese citizens earning yen can.
In Atami’s case, however, restricting the tax to foreign tourists wouldn’t do much to boost its fortunes. While the city wants to expand its inbound tourist traffic, according to Asahi Shimbun, foreign tourists only account for 1% of the city’s 2.97 million yearly overnight stays.
One expert interviewed by FNN, Toriumi Kotaro, says that, as a rule, lodging taxes are assessed without regard for the nationality of the lodger. However, while there are issues with implementing such a scheme, they’re not impossible.
One issue is that hotels in Japan don’t require ID for residents beyond filling out a registration card with information that matches the booking details. If there’s a tax involved, municipalities would likely want proof of residence to ensure they’re collecting what they can. To prevent potential discrimination – e.g., insisting on ID from a mixed-race Japanese citizen because they don’t “look Japanese” – hotels would need to demand ID uniformly from all lodgers.
As it stands, foreign residents of Japan have already been subject to discrimination at hotel chains. In 2023, Kagawa Prefecture had to ask hotel operators to stop asking foreigners to present ID based solely on their name and appearance. (Hotels are only supposed to ask for a passport based on someone’s address.)
Personally, I can’t imagine that hotels would want to go to the trouble of changing this system. And I don’t think most Japanese citizens, who have gotten used to this system as a way of protecting their privacy, would be down for it, either. Universal lodging taxes are likely to stick around, even as municipalities look for other ways to implement two-tier pricing at attractions such as museums and historical spots.
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