Is Airbnb still worth it in Japan?

Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Japan

Is Airbnb in Japan still booming today?

Airbnb demand in Japan is still very strong today, and the latest numbers give us no reason to think tourists are losing interest in short-term rentals.

Japan received 3.44 million international visitors in the latest JNTO monthly estimate. That was the highest figure ever recorded for that particular month, with 17 source markets setting monthly records and Taiwan passing 700,000 visitors for the first time.

The official minpaku figures are moving even faster. According to the Japan Tourism Agency's latest two-month report, properties registered under the Residential Accommodation Business Act recorded 624,088 occupied days, up 38.6% from a year earlier. They hosted 626,765 guests and generated 1.75 million guest-nights.

Foreign visitors accounted for 62.4% of those guests. The United States, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Australia were the five largest foreign markets, yet together they accounted for less than half of foreign guests. Demand is spread across several major tourism markets rather than resting heavily on one country.

So the demand side still looks healthy. What has become harder is turning that tourism boom into a good property investment.

Latest indicator	Result	Change	What we learn
International visitors	3.44m	+0.1% YoY	Japan remains around record tourism levels
New-law minpaku occupied days	624,088	+38.6% YoY	Short-term-rental use is growing much faster
Minpaku guests	626,765	+30.1% YoY	Guest demand remains strong
Minpaku guest-nights	1.75m	+33.0% YoY	Travelers are generating more total stays
Foreign share of minpaku guests	62.4%	391,174 guests	Inbound tourism drives most demand

Why has Airbnb become harder to invest in Japan now?

Airbnb investing in Japan has become harder because some of the cities with the best tourist demand are now restricting the easiest ways to add new legal supply.

Osaka is the clearest example. The city had built a huge special-zone minpaku market, with 7,312 certified properties included in one recent municipal survey. Complaints rose alongside that expansion. Osaka created a dedicated nuisance-minpaku team, strengthened its guidelines and identified 2,817 properties for priority monitoring.

The city then made a much bigger move: it stopped taking new applications under the special-zone minpaku system after May 2026.

Existing certified operators can continue, but a route that helped make Osaka unusually attractive to Airbnb investors has closed to newcomers.

Kyoto has taken a different route. The city already has some of Japan's toughest local restrictions and has lately stepped up enforcement against operators who fail to submit required occupancy reports.

Tokyo is more fragmented. Rules differ by ward and sometimes by zoning within the same ward. Shinjuku restricts ordinary minpaku in residential-only areas during much of the working week, while Shibuya has recently revised its own minpaku ordinance and operating rules.

Japan still permits short-term rentals nationally. The tightening is happening municipality by municipality, which makes the exact address much more important than the broad city name.

Market	What has changed	What it means for a new investor	Current direction
Osaka	New special-zone minpaku applications closed	One of the best operating routes is no longer open	Much tighter
Kyoto	Strict calendar rules plus stronger enforcement	Legal operating days can be severely restricted	Tight
Shinjuku	Weekday restrictions in some residential zones	Two nearby properties can have different economics	Tight
Shibuya	Local minpaku rules recently revised	More compliance work and address-specific checks	Tightening
Japan nationally	New-law minpaku remains legal	Up to 180 days before local restrictions	Still permitted

Does Japan's 180-day Airbnb limit ruin the returns?

Japan's 180-day Airbnb limit does not ruin every deal, but it can destroy an investment model that was built using ordinary 365-day occupancy assumptions.

A property operating under the Residential Accommodation Business Act can host guests for no more than 180 days a year. Local rules can reduce that further.

That puts the theoretical maximum occupancy against the full calendar at just 49.3%.

180 ÷ 365 = 49.3%.

This is obvious once you see it, but it creates a surprisingly large problem when investors use market analytics.

AirDNA's latest city data show occupancy around 74% in Tokyo, 65% in Kyoto and 61% in Osaka. Those figures measure booked nights against nights made available and cover a wider short-term-rental universe, including properties operating under other accommodation licenses.

An ordinary 180-day minpaku cannot simply take Tokyo's 74% market occupancy and apply it to all 365 nights.

At ¥25,000 a night, selling 135 nights produces ¥3.375 million. Selling 270 nights produces ¥6.75 million. The difference comes from the legal operating structure before we even discuss pricing skill, reviews or management.

For a standard minpaku, we should therefore start with legal nights and work downward. Starting with a citywide Airbnb revenue estimate and working backward can create a forecast the property is legally incapable of reaching.

Are Japanese minpaku actually filling their 180 legal days?

Most Japanese minpaku currently appear to be using far fewer than their full 180 legal days, although Tokyo and Kyoto perform much better than the national average.

The Japan Tourism Agency gives us unusually useful evidence here because registered hosts must report actual occupied days every two months.

During the latest reported period, the average property recorded 17.9 occupied days.

If we simply multiplied that two-month pace by six, we would get about 107 occupied days a year. We should not treat that as a forecast because tourism is seasonal, but it shows the rough scale: the average reporting property was running well below the pace needed to exhaust 180 days.

Tokyo averaged 22.8 occupied days during the same period. Kyoto reached 25.0.

Kyoto was therefore about 40% above the national average, while Tokyo was roughly 27% above it.

That gap tells us more than a generic statement that “location matters.” A strong tourism market can let an owner use much more of the scarce legal calendar, which raises the value of every permitted operating day.

Area	Occupied days per property over two months	Simple six-period pace	Share of 180-day allowance at that pace	Versus Japan
Japan	17.9	107.4	59.7%	Baseline
Tokyo	22.8	136.8	76.0%	+27%
Kyoto	25.0	150.0	83.3%	+40%

Can a Tokyo Airbnb still make good money?

A Tokyo Airbnb can still generate excellent revenue now, but buying Tokyo property has become so expensive that a high Airbnb turnover figure can hide an ordinary return on the money invested.

AirDNA currently tracks about 28,300 active short-term rentals in Tokyo. Its latest completed-month dataset shows 74% occupancy of available nights, an average daily rate around $162 and roughly $39,200 of trailing annual revenue per active listing.

The recent movement is encouraging. Active listings fell 9.3% year on year, while occupancy rose 2.6%, ADR increased 3.5% and RevPAR gained 6.9%.

Official Japanese data point in the same direction. Tokyo generated 362,082 occupied new-law minpaku days in the Japan Tourism Agency's latest reporting period, equal to roughly 58% of the national total.

Tokyo clearly has deep short-term-rental demand.

Property prices create the harder part of the calculation. According to the Real Estate Economic Institute, a new condominium in Tokyo's 23 wards averaged ¥142.49 million during the first half of 2026, up 9.1% from a year earlier. REINS data put resale condominium prices around ¥1.36 million per square meter in the 23 wards in July.

Imagine a property producing ¥6 million of gross annual Airbnb bookings.

That is 15% of a ¥40 million purchase price, 7.5% of an ¥80 million purchase and just 5% of a ¥120 million purchase, before any operating costs.

The Airbnb business can work very well in Tokyo. The property deal still has to make sense at today's acquisition price.

Is Osaka still the best Airbnb market in Japan?

Osaka is still one of Japan's most interesting Airbnb markets, especially for properties with established operating rights, but we would no longer call it the obvious best city for a new entrant.

AirDNA currently tracks roughly 14,400 short-term rentals across its Osaka market. The latest figures show 61% occupancy, an ADR around $103 and trailing annual revenue of about $20,200 per active listing.

The recent trend is weaker than Tokyo or Kyoto. Occupancy is down 10.7% year on year, ADR is down 8.8% and RevPAR has fallen 16.8%.

At the same time, active listings have dropped 16.6%.

That combination deserves attention. Osaka currently has less competing supply but also weaker revenue per available night. We cannot simply describe the falling listing count as bullish.

The regulatory change adds another layer. Osaka's special-zone system gave the city a major advantage because eligible operators were not boxed into the ordinary 180-day framework in the same way as standard new-law minpaku. As discussed above, the city has now stopped taking new applications.

Existing compliant operations may therefore become more valuable precisely because they are harder to recreate.

That makes Osaka a very different investment from a few years ago. Buying an ordinary property and planning to obtain the right permission later carries much more risk. Buying a property where the operating structure has already been independently verified can still be compelling.

Osaka metric	Latest result	YoY change	What we make of it
Active STR listings	~14,425	-16.6%	Competition is shrinking
Occupancy	61%	-10.7%	Available nights are filling less easily
ADR	$103	-8.8%	Pricing has softened
RevPAR	$62	-16.8%	Current operating performance is weaker
Trailing annual revenue	$20,200	+8.3%	Past-year revenue still looks resilient
New special-zone applications	Closed	Major policy shift	New supply faces a much higher barrier

Is Kyoto Airbnb still worth the headache?

A well-licensed Kyoto Airbnb can currently be one of the strongest short-term-rental businesses in Japan, while the wrong residential property can be almost useless for the same strategy.

Kyoto has exceptional demand. The city's new-law minpaku averaged 25 occupied days per property during the latest two-month Tourism Agency reporting period, the highest prefectural result in Japan.

AirDNA's latest Kyoto dataset tells a similar story. It tracks about 4,200 active short-term rentals with 65% occupancy, an ADR around $187 and approximately $40,300 of annual revenue per active listing.

The recent pattern is particularly strong: active listings fell 26.1% year on year while average annual revenue rose 31.6%. ADR increased 6.2% and RevPAR gained 8.6%.

That is a much healthier combination than Osaka currently shows.

Kyoto's regulation can still overwhelm those attractive market numbers. In certain residential-only areas, an ordinary new-law minpaku can generally operate only from January 15 to March 16 unless an exemption applies.

Two months of legal operation changes the whole investment.

Kyoto has also made enforcement faster for operators who fail to submit mandatory reports. The city can move through instructions, corrective orders, penalties, suspension and public disclosure rather than allowing reporting failures to drag on indefinitely.

So Kyoto deserves a strong answer in both directions. The right property can be excellent. A residential house bought because “Kyoto gets lots of tourists” can be a terrible Airbnb purchase.

Can you really buy any Japanese apartment and put it on Airbnb?

You cannot safely buy an ordinary Japanese apartment today and assume you will be allowed to run Airbnb from it afterward.

Japanese property ownership and permission to provide paid accommodation are separate issues.

Under the national minpaku system, the property must meet the legal definition of a residence, contain the required facilities and be properly registered. The 180-day national ceiling applies, alongside whatever local ordinance the municipality has adopted.

A rented property also needs permission from the landlord.

Condominiums add another hurdle because management association rules can ban short-term accommodation even when local law would otherwise permit it. Osaka explicitly warns applicants that special-zone minpaku cannot operate in condominiums whose management rules prohibit the activity.

Fire and building requirements can create additional renovation costs.

Then we have the city rules. Depending on the address, those may regulate operating days, neighborhood notification, signs, rubbish, emergency response, guest identity checks or the physical distance to a responsible manager.

Foreign buyers can legally own Japanese property, but non-resident acquisitions can also trigger reporting obligations under Japan's foreign-exchange rules.

The sensible buying process starts with confirming what the property can legally do. Only after that should we value the Airbnb income.

Check before buying	What can go wrong	Financial effect
Legal accommodation route	Intended license unavailable	Airbnb plan may disappear completely
Local zoning	Operating calendar restricted	Fewer revenue nights
Condominium rules	Building bans short stays	Property cannot be used as planned
Fire/building requirements	Upgrades required	Higher upfront cost
Management requirements	Local operator needed	Lower net margin
Fallback long-term rent	Weak conventional rental demand	Poor downside protection

Is the Airbnb license becoming part of the property's value in Japan?

For some Japanese Airbnb properties, the operating right is now becoming a meaningful part of what investors are really buying.

Consider two similar Osaka apartments near the same station.

One may sit inside an established legal accommodation structure capable of operating far more freely. The other may be limited to ordinary minpaku rules. A third may be blocked by condominium regulations. Another investor may discover that the license route used by nearby operators is no longer accepting new applications.

Floor area, age and long-term rent can be almost identical while Airbnb revenue potential differs dramatically.

Tokyo has smaller versions of the same problem. In Shinjuku, ordinary minpaku in residential-only zones cannot operate from noon on Monday until noon on Friday. A property elsewhere in the ward may avoid that particular local restriction while remaining subject to the national 180-day cap.

Kyoto creates even larger gaps depending on zoning and accommodation regime.

This changes how we should value Japanese Airbnb properties. Price per square meter and conventional rent still matter, but legal operating capacity can shift the commercial value much more than a slightly better renovation or a five-minute difference in walking distance.

We would be especially cautious when a seller asks for a big “Airbnb premium.” Existing operations can be valuable, but the buyer needs to verify exactly what permission attaches to the property, operator or corporate structure and whether it survives the transaction.

Does Airbnb really make more money than long-term renting in Japan?

Airbnb can make far more gross revenue than a normal Japanese rental, but the gap gets much smaller once we compare what the owner actually keeps.

Long-term renting is simple by comparison. The tenant can occupy the unit throughout the year, turnover is infrequent and there is no accommodation platform taking a cut from every booking.

Airbnb earns its premium by doing more work.

The owner has to cover some combination of platform costs, management, utilities, internet, linens, toiletries, guest communication, maintenance, pricing, compliance and more frequent wear.

The platform fee has also become more important. Airbnb recently announced a simplified single-fee structure under which many professional and software-connected hosts pay 15.5% from the host payout. Airbnb's Japanese help center says most hosts using that structure pay 15.5%, with some generally falling between 14% and 16%.

Take ¥6 million of booking revenue. A 15.5% platform fee removes ¥930,000 before management or property expenses.

If an operator then charges around 20% of revenue after OTA fees, roughly another ¥1 million can disappear. Add fixed management charges, utilities and maintenance and the difference between ¥6 million of bookings and the owner's actual operating income becomes substantial.

Airbnb can absolutely beat long-term renting, especially for larger properties in tourist areas. But comparing ¥6 million of Airbnb revenue with ¥2.4 million of annual rent is misleading unless both numbers are brought down to owner-level net income.

Are Airbnb management fees becoming a deal-breaker in Japan?

Airbnb management fees can ruin a marginal Japanese investment, particularly for overseas owners who cannot realistically self-manage the property.

Remote hosting in Japan involves more than arranging a cleaner. Depending on the operating regime, someone has to handle guest identity, emergency response, complaints, rubbish, maintenance, periodic government reporting and communication with neighbors or authorities.

A good local manager is valuable because those responsibilities are real.

The cost is also real.

One current Japanese operator, for example, advertises full management at the higher of ¥70,000 per month or 20% of accommodation revenue after OTA and payment fees, together with a ¥30,000 monthly asset-management charge. That is one company's pricing rather than a market average, but it shows how quickly the numbers can stack up.

A fixed ¥30,000 monthly charge costs ¥360,000 a year.

On a property producing ¥10 million of annual revenue, that equals 3.6%.

On a ¥4 million property, it equals 9%.

This is one reason larger family units can work better than tiny studios. A six-person property can generate much more revenue per reservation while cleaning, guest support and fixed administration do not rise proportionately.

We therefore care more about net revenue per legal operating day than headline occupancy. Filling almost every available night at a cheap rate is less impressive when platform fees, management and turnover absorb most of the margin.

Is Airbnb competition getting worse in Japan?

Airbnb competition in Japan is not currently exploding in Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto; the latest platform data actually show fewer active listings in all three markets.

AirDNA reports active supply down 9.3% year on year in Tokyo, 16.6% in Osaka and 26.1% in Kyoto.

Across the three datasets, there are roughly 46,900 active short-term-rental listings today.

That does not mean competition has disappeared. Forty-seven thousand listings across three major markets is substantial, hotels compete for the same guests, and the best neighborhoods can still be crowded.

But the current direction does matter.

Kyoto is the clearest example. Listings fell more than a quarter while ADR, RevPAR and annual revenue per active property all rose. Scarcity appears to be helping remaining operators.

Tokyo also looks healthy, with fewer listings alongside higher occupancy and RevPAR.

Osaka is the counterexample. Supply fell sharply there too, yet occupancy, ADR and RevPAR also declined. Cutting supply alone clearly does not guarantee stronger economics.

The national minpaku registry gives us another useful perspective. Japan has received more than 65,000 new-law filings since the system began, but nearly 24,000 businesses have subsequently closed. Roughly one-third of all historical filings are therefore no longer active.

Airbnb supply in Japan has a meaningful failure and exit rate. The market keeps attracting new operators, but plenty of properties also disappear.

Market	Active listings	YoY supply	Occupancy	YoY RevPAR
Tokyo	~28,274	-9.3%	74%	+6.9%
Osaka	~14,425	-16.6%	61%	-16.8%
Kyoto	~4,228	-26.1%	65%	+8.6%
Combined	~46,927	Clearly lower	Mixed	Mixed

Are expensive property prices and higher borrowing costs killing Airbnb returns in Japan?

High property prices and more expensive investment loans are currently squeezing Airbnb returns, particularly in Tokyo, and leverage no longer saves an average deal automatically.

Tokyo's property repricing has been huge. New condominiums in the 23 wards recently averaged ¥142.49 million, while resale condominiums were around ¥1.36 million per square meter.

The same Airbnb cash flow therefore buys a much lower property-level return than it would on a cheaper acquisition.

Suppose we can produce ¥6 million of gross annual bookings.

Against a ¥40 million purchase price, that revenue equals 15% of the asset price.

At ¥80 million it falls to 7.5%.

At ¥120 million it is 5%.

Those figures still exclude every operating cost, so they should not be confused with yields.

Debt also costs more than the ultra-cheap Japanese home-loan headlines suggest. A current Shinsei Investment & Finance product for Japanese companies backed by overseas investors advertises variable rates from 3.20% to 4.45%, plus establishment fees of 2.20% to 3.30% of the loan.

Its individual overseas-investor product currently charges 3.65% variable and is restricted to qualifying Hong Kong residents buying eligible condominiums in specified areas.

That is a very different financing environment from a 1% owner-occupier mortgage.

If a property produces only a 4% or 5% net operating return before financing, borrowing at roughly 3.5% to 4.5% leaves little room for mistakes.

A genuine 8% operating return gives us much more breathing space.

For foreign investors especially, the financing should be confirmed early. Japan has specialist products, but eligibility depends on residency, nationality, corporate structure, income and property location.

What kind of Airbnb still works best in Japan now?

The Japanese Airbnb deals that still look best now are legally secure properties with high revenue per booking, enough usable nights and a decent fallback if short-term-rental rules get worse.

Legal operating capacity comes first.

A property with a verified lodging structure that can operate throughout much of the year can be worth considerably more as a hospitality business than a similar unit limited to 180 days or a narrow local calendar.

Guest capacity also matters.

Larger houses and apartments can serve families and groups that would otherwise need two or three hotel rooms. That gives the property room to charge a much higher reservation value without necessarily multiplying management costs.

The official minpaku numbers show why group travel matters. The latest national report recorded 1.75 million guest-nights from 626,765 guests. That works out to roughly 2.8 guest-nights for every arriving guest. Tokyo alone generated almost 977,000 guest-nights from about 250,000 guests.

We also want a property that survives a bad regulatory outcome.

Could it become a furnished monthly rental? Could a normal tenant cover a reasonable part of the carrying cost? Is it attractive as ordinary residential real estate? Would another hospitality operator want it?

A property that only works under an aggressive Airbnb forecast gives us very little protection.

The strongest setup is usually less glamorous than the highest projected yield on a sales brochure: a good tourist location, verified permission, enough guest capacity, sensible acquisition cost and a fallback rental use that keeps the downside manageable.

Is Airbnb still worth it in Japan?

Yes, Airbnb is still worth it in Japan today, but the attractive deals are becoming more specialized and much harder to reproduce.

Tourist demand remains powerful. As seen above, Japan's latest monthly visitor count was around 3.44 million, while official new-law minpaku occupied days jumped 38.6% year on year. Tokyo and Kyoto are also using substantially more of their legal calendars than the average Japanese minpaku.

The big-city operating data are good enough to keep us interested. Tokyo currently has strong occupancy and rising RevPAR. Kyoto combines falling supply with higher rates and revenue. Osaka is weaker operationally lately, but existing compliant properties have become more interesting now that new special-zone applications have closed.

The easy strategy has faded.

Buying a random apartment, copying a citywide Airbnb occupancy number into a spreadsheet and assuming the license can be sorted out later is a bad way to invest in Japan now. The 180-day rule alone can make those projections impossible, while local ordinances, condominium rules and management costs can reduce the economics much further.

Property prices add another constraint. Tokyo real estate has become expensive enough that even strong accommodation revenue can produce only a mediocre return on the capital invested. Foreign-investor borrowing costs around 3% to 4.5% also leave much less room for an average property to work.

We would still buy a Japanese Airbnb when the operating rights are clear, the legal calendar is long enough, the property can charge well per booking, acquisition price leaves a real margin after expenses, and conventional rental provides a reasonable backup.

That is the key change in Japan these days. Airbnb can still be a very good business, but the license, address and purchase price now decide the deal long before tourism demand does.

Who is the author of this content?

BAMBOOROUTES

A team specialized in real estate investing in APAC countries (Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, etc.).

We are a team of financial experts, legal professionals, developers, and local real estate specialists dedicated to helping people like you avoid mistakes when investing in real estate in a foreign place, particularly in Japan. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can check our presentation page.