Until 2018, the growth ofAirbnb at Japan had been remarkable. Having arrived in the Japanese archipelago in 2015, the platform experienced some of its strongest growth there, with a peak of 62,000 homes by mid-2018. This success was due in particular to shortage of hotels in urban centres, with occupancy rates of around 80% to 90%.
The other reason for this surge is the boom in foreign tourism to Japan. In 2008, the government predicted that there would be 20 million international visitors by 2020, but this figure was well exceeded last year. In fact, Japan recorded 31.8 million arrivalsThis means that the number of visitors has more than doubled between 2015 and 2018!
A repressive law
Of course, the hotel capacities have not kept pace with the increase in overnight stays, mainly due to exorbitant set-up costs and a shortage of land in major cities. A godsend, then, for Airbnb, especially as the legislation on flat sharing was non-existent. The legal vacuum gave rise to heated debate, with the hotel lobby arguing that Airbnb's activity should fall under hotel law. As the discussions stalled, the number of shared flats exploded, with owners exploiting the legal vacuum. Until a district of Tokyo introduced in 2016 regional regulations limiting the possibility of renting a flat to tourists passing through at least one week in a "minpaku (shared-rented flat). The idea was adopted at national level but rarely applied because it required ratification by each municipal or regional authority. Finally, in June 2018, a new law passed in 2017 took effect on the regulation of minpaku.
The law, which was fairly strict and aimed to protect hoteliers, now required owners to provide countless documents, submit to inspections by the authorities, and apply regulations on health and safety extremely restrictive. Once a licence number has been obtained, flats can be rented for 180 days maximum per year. In one week, the number of shared flats on Airbnb has fallen by 80%This represents 13,800 units. At the beginning of 2019, only 2,210 flats were officially registered.
But since February, Airbnb has once again had a presence in Japan, with officially registered minpaku again representing 14,000 flats. This is still a long way from the pre-law figures, but the rate of growth is very rapid.
The Olympics to the rescue
According to Fuji Keizai NetworksAccording to a consultant analysing trends in the Japanese market, the number of shared flats is set to double by next year. Airbnb has set up a programme to support and advise existing hosts and recruit new ones. The collaborative is once again present in sixty towns. It has to be said that the prospect of Olympic Games This is a strong incentive for the Japanese authorities to show greater flexibility. While hotel capacity in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto - the three cities hosting the Olympic events - is set to increase by 38%hotel consultant CBRE predicts thatTokyo will be short of some 3,500 roomsThis is despite the fact that the city is set to increase its room capacity from 98,000 in 2017 to more than 120,000 next year.
Airbnb should therefore take advantage of this. In fact, the platform has just signed a partnership agreement with the city of Kamaishi for the Rugby World Cup, which will be held in the country from September next, proof that Japan really does need such a player to welcome foreign visitors. With the return of this competition between hotels and shared flats, visitors should see room prices fall.
