Japan’s Accommodation Tax: What’s Really Happening

Japan’s Accommodation Tax: What’s Really Happening

This week there’ve been headlines about Kyoto city increasing their accommodation tax by a huge amount. This is something I’ve covered before in Japan News, when it was just a proposal. Now it’s been approved by the government. So here’s what’s actually happening. In certain areas in Japan, you pay accommodation tax per night at your hotel. Usually you pay at check in and it’s not normally very much. So it’s nothing to worry about Kyoto is increasing the tax to help the city cope with the increase in tourists. It will be used for things like infrastructure, public transport and preserving historic sites, many of which are free to visit anyway. The cost of the tax depends on the cost of your hotel. So the ¥10,000 per night tax mentioned in all the headlines is only for the most expensive luxury hotels that are ¥100,000 per night or more. Here are all the tiers. Unless you’re booking fancier hotels than I do, it’s likely you’ll be paying ¥400 or ¥1000 per night, which is double what it used to be, but it’s nowhere near ¥10,000 per night, like all these clickbait headlines are saying. That starts on the 1st March 2026.

What’s really happening with accommodation tax in Japan. There are so many headlines this week about the tourist tax increase in Kyoto – but it’s only 10,000 yen per night for the most expensive hotels.

My full Japan News video’s up now if you want more updates, with no clickbait!