Thank you for this thoughtful article, which introduced me to your Substack. I’m also an interior designer/renovator of old buildings in Japan. Where I’m based (Izu Kogen, Shizuoka) it’s largely Chinese investors driving up prices and buying out once-tranquil besso areas.
A key problem here (and I suspect elsewhere) is “Kashi-Besso” (Rental villas) where investors exploit loopholes to repurpose properties with existing hotel licenses, bypassing the stricter Minpaku codes. They target corporate-owned holiday properties (hoyoujo) and Japanese inns (pensions). Current guidelines weren't designed for these being reopened as AirB style properties, so the owners self-modify buildings, often violating basic fire regulations, and rent them out to large groups. No updated checks are required; owner changes are rubber-stamped without investigating the change in usage.
Now, Chaos ensues: Peaceful, considerate communities are overrun by drunken groups partying outdoors in a post-COVID business model featuring karaoke, mahjong, indoor parties, and outdoor BBQs/smoking areas (often in car parks near streets). Spring and Summer break, other seasonal holiday seasons it’s not just weekends, but every night! Large groups (frequently young men) scream and shout into the early hours. These old properties aren't soundproofed and lack adequate parking. Rubbish is dumped everywhere, attracting crows and wild boars.
Police, if pressed, issue token warnings to guests, which are quickly ignored as partying resumes. If pressed too far they take out their frustration on the residents rather than the perpetrators for “expecting too much”. City hall does virtually nothing; the prefecture and politicians wring their hands but take no meaningful action. The local besso management company (Izukyu, owned by Tokyu, to whom we pay annual fees) refuses involvement, citing "neutrality," while quietly supporting the influx through their real estate division and welcoming new owners.
After two years of effort - including 300 resident signatures, letters to Tokyu's president, the city mayor, prefectural governor, and others; citizen lobbying; and countless meetings with officials - we're no closer to establishing basic guidelines. It's not just the noise (hard to address without laws) but the blatant disregard for safety, regulations, and any meaningful authority follow-up.
Even existing hotel requirements (e.g. having a nearby management company to handle issues in place of on-site check-ins) aren't upheld; if the prefecture can't identify someone, they simply give up. Platforms like Airbnb and Hotels.com disclaim liability, citing valid licenses. The worst offenders manage multiple properties: We see the same staff cleaning and checking in groups, yet they deny involvement despite it being on their websites. Registrations use varying Chinese names or Japanese pseudonyms, and letters to them go unanswered.
There's documented crime and wasted police time from weekend warnings, but the police department insists it's not their issue. The local newspaper ran a couple of articles (prompted by a politician for PR?), but no follow-ups despite requests. Instead, they published a front-page piece with city hall input praising minpaku for regenerating "akiya." (Ridiculous, as properties here sell quickly; akiya is a separate problem.) Properly run hotels are suffering too. I know pension owners who've quit due to noise from adjacent rental villas. Some residents have simply moved away, fed up with the impasse.
Excuse the long reply, but your article inspired me to put this summary together for the first time! Any ideas on how we try to break this deadlock? If so, we're all ears
Good lord, that sounds absolutely awful, I’m sorry. What infuriates me so much about the world tech platforms have created is the absolute erosion of context, to the point that you have to worry many people are so habituated to online interactions that they no longer even have an awareness of sharing the physical world with other people.
Thank you for sharing. I imagine there are many such stories from across the country. I do think people will have to keep fig by big until the point that politicians take their concerns seriously
I would venture the Airbnb effect is only a small part of the overtourism, or popularity of Japan at the moment. After all, these are single units, and as you romanticize are born from converted older spaces.
This is happening throughout Japan, including Kyoto. Of course, which is much worse is a four or five-story hotel is developed in the middle of an neighborhood to address the millions of tourists, at Airbnb and other short-term rentals could not accommodate.
However, many cities are addressing the issue with San Francisco, New York, Paris, for example now requiring stricter control. San Francisco, evidently, saw a 50% drop in listings after new fees were introduced. But will it change anything for Japan? Probably not, after all Tokyo houses about 38 million people and development and renewal of old districts has never slowed.
Thanks for your comment! I am critiquing/conflating two (actually three) things in this piece without clear distinction as to where the argument shifts, which is mostly an issue with my writing style: 1) the physical appearance and impact of airbnbs on the environment, 2) the current style of tech-mediated mass tourism and 3) the macro-level erasure of local spaces and lifeworlds by global-scale economic systems.
On 1) I think you’re right, Airbnbs are only a small part of overall tourism, and I’m describing an area that is an outlier. But the company likes to perpetuate a romanticized image of offering a more authentic experience, preserving local character, getting to know hosts, etc, while also encouraging locales to deregulate and allow the kind of widespread development that’s happening here and certainly doesn’t fit that image. If companies are going to erect entire towers of Airbnbs, and call the buildings “hotels” they should be regulated under the hotel law. Either that or Airbnb should change its name to Automated Barebones Nondescript Building to more accurately describe their product.
Personally I think that building hotels with proper tourist infrastructure in areas that can absorb the change is preferable to tourist spaces encroaching on local areas in an overwhelming way. That strategy takes time and can’t meet demand, which makes me think demand growing too fast is the problem that needs a policy fix (taxation mainly, especially in places like Kyoto). But this runs into the immense demand created by 2), which is a harder problem for one country to solve. And 3) is the biggest of all questions, like saying smartphones are destroying our humanity, and one I don’t pretend to have an answer to, except that it should be something other than this. Just trying to observe that the current approach is not exactly a recipe for a bright urban future
Glad to see Cocoroom! One of the few places doing it right. Why can't that way of doing become a TikTok trend :-D
On my last visit, just as the Expo was getting rolling, I felt Osaka changed a whole lot, not just since pre-pandemic, but even in the several months since my last visit! The Airbnbs were one rapid change, also the seemingly high level of waste on technology in the public sphere: 100% dazzle, 0% useful-improvement-on-what-was-there-before.
Even though I agree with your sentiments here, it is difficult to wrap my head around the things that are happening in Osaka in particular.
Well, another reason, I think, to focus energy on (as you are) local efforts that cherish where we are, and who we are :-)
Yes, like the facial recognition gates at the metro! So much energy expended in the wrong direction.
Writing this made me a little uncomfortable because it’s not an area (or a city) with which I have much of direct relationship, and I wasn’t there long enough to do justice to any local perspectives. I cannot say I’ve wrapped my head around what’s going on either. Hopefully I didn’t get out over my skis on what is mostly just immediate impressions.
I will return to this issue of digital vs local worlds in other forms, as I find it preoccupying much of my thoughts in this strange age. I share your sense that the best form of resistance is to create and cultivate local spaces where alternatives can survive and thrive.
Great observation! I remember when I stayed next to Kamagasaki in 2013, I had no idea about the area and just saw a cheap hostel. I emailed my professor in Hiroshima, and he suggested "Check out Tobita Shinchi, but don't take photos, the yakuza don't like it." It certainly was a different Japan I encountered there.
I, too, wonder what's after the Airbnb-ification. Berlin is in a similar situation and while they did pass a law prohibiting using apartments only for short term rentals, it takes a long time to process all pending cases. In June, they announced, that 8000 apartments for short term rental (and other variations) were forced to become normal residential long term apartments again.
Taking the long view: More than a hundred years ago, residential buildings with huge apartments were built for the bourgeois. They included rooms for servants and such. Now, these buildings still stand and (if they got lucky) the apartments are shared by low income families or students. It's a different kind of gentrification, albeit very slow, it took two wars and the Berlin Wall to achieve it – and it looks to be slowly undone by capital moving now. However, this might shift once more.
Yeah I think the area back then was very much backpackers etc. I guess what I noticed this time was what seemed like a wider range of people staying there: older couples, families, etc. so the larger style of accommodation is quite apparent.
Interesting about Berlin! Big apartments in old buildings definitely allow for a certain type of gentrification and transformation to occur. I am often more pessimistic about the future adaptability of some of the new construction in Japanese cities, because the size/relationship to the surroundings does not allow for easy conversions (another reason why it’s important to save older structures!). But yes I think some of these here will end up being converted to regular housing too.
Thank you for this thoughtful article, which introduced me to your Substack. I’m also an interior designer/renovator of old buildings in Japan. Where I’m based (Izu Kogen, Shizuoka) it’s largely Chinese investors driving up prices and buying out once-tranquil besso areas.
A key problem here (and I suspect elsewhere) is “Kashi-Besso” (Rental villas) where investors exploit loopholes to repurpose properties with existing hotel licenses, bypassing the stricter Minpaku codes. They target corporate-owned holiday properties (hoyoujo) and Japanese inns (pensions). Current guidelines weren't designed for these being reopened as AirB style properties, so the owners self-modify buildings, often violating basic fire regulations, and rent them out to large groups. No updated checks are required; owner changes are rubber-stamped without investigating the change in usage.
Now, Chaos ensues: Peaceful, considerate communities are overrun by drunken groups partying outdoors in a post-COVID business model featuring karaoke, mahjong, indoor parties, and outdoor BBQs/smoking areas (often in car parks near streets). Spring and Summer break, other seasonal holiday seasons it’s not just weekends, but every night! Large groups (frequently young men) scream and shout into the early hours. These old properties aren't soundproofed and lack adequate parking. Rubbish is dumped everywhere, attracting crows and wild boars.
Police, if pressed, issue token warnings to guests, which are quickly ignored as partying resumes. If pressed too far they take out their frustration on the residents rather than the perpetrators for “expecting too much”. City hall does virtually nothing; the prefecture and politicians wring their hands but take no meaningful action. The local besso management company (Izukyu, owned by Tokyu, to whom we pay annual fees) refuses involvement, citing "neutrality," while quietly supporting the influx through their real estate division and welcoming new owners.
After two years of effort - including 300 resident signatures, letters to Tokyu's president, the city mayor, prefectural governor, and others; citizen lobbying; and countless meetings with officials - we're no closer to establishing basic guidelines. It's not just the noise (hard to address without laws) but the blatant disregard for safety, regulations, and any meaningful authority follow-up.
Even existing hotel requirements (e.g. having a nearby management company to handle issues in place of on-site check-ins) aren't upheld; if the prefecture can't identify someone, they simply give up. Platforms like Airbnb and Hotels.com disclaim liability, citing valid licenses. The worst offenders manage multiple properties: We see the same staff cleaning and checking in groups, yet they deny involvement despite it being on their websites. Registrations use varying Chinese names or Japanese pseudonyms, and letters to them go unanswered.
There's documented crime and wasted police time from weekend warnings, but the police department insists it's not their issue. The local newspaper ran a couple of articles (prompted by a politician for PR?), but no follow-ups despite requests. Instead, they published a front-page piece with city hall input praising minpaku for regenerating "akiya." (Ridiculous, as properties here sell quickly; akiya is a separate problem.) Properly run hotels are suffering too. I know pension owners who've quit due to noise from adjacent rental villas. Some residents have simply moved away, fed up with the impasse.
Excuse the long reply, but your article inspired me to put this summary together for the first time! Any ideas on how we try to break this deadlock? If so, we're all ears
izucommunityaction@gmail.com
Good lord, that sounds absolutely awful, I’m sorry. What infuriates me so much about the world tech platforms have created is the absolute erosion of context, to the point that you have to worry many people are so habituated to online interactions that they no longer even have an awareness of sharing the physical world with other people.
Thank you for sharing. I imagine there are many such stories from across the country. I do think people will have to keep fig by big until the point that politicians take their concerns seriously
That is really sad to hear. Izu Kogen is such a wonderful place. I hope you manage to resolve this.
Hey, great read as alwais. Love how you connect urban shifts to algorithmic processes.
I would venture the Airbnb effect is only a small part of the overtourism, or popularity of Japan at the moment. After all, these are single units, and as you romanticize are born from converted older spaces.
This is happening throughout Japan, including Kyoto. Of course, which is much worse is a four or five-story hotel is developed in the middle of an neighborhood to address the millions of tourists, at Airbnb and other short-term rentals could not accommodate.
However, many cities are addressing the issue with San Francisco, New York, Paris, for example now requiring stricter control. San Francisco, evidently, saw a 50% drop in listings after new fees were introduced. But will it change anything for Japan? Probably not, after all Tokyo houses about 38 million people and development and renewal of old districts has never slowed.
Thanks for your comment! I am critiquing/conflating two (actually three) things in this piece without clear distinction as to where the argument shifts, which is mostly an issue with my writing style: 1) the physical appearance and impact of airbnbs on the environment, 2) the current style of tech-mediated mass tourism and 3) the macro-level erasure of local spaces and lifeworlds by global-scale economic systems.
On 1) I think you’re right, Airbnbs are only a small part of overall tourism, and I’m describing an area that is an outlier. But the company likes to perpetuate a romanticized image of offering a more authentic experience, preserving local character, getting to know hosts, etc, while also encouraging locales to deregulate and allow the kind of widespread development that’s happening here and certainly doesn’t fit that image. If companies are going to erect entire towers of Airbnbs, and call the buildings “hotels” they should be regulated under the hotel law. Either that or Airbnb should change its name to Automated Barebones Nondescript Building to more accurately describe their product.
Personally I think that building hotels with proper tourist infrastructure in areas that can absorb the change is preferable to tourist spaces encroaching on local areas in an overwhelming way. That strategy takes time and can’t meet demand, which makes me think demand growing too fast is the problem that needs a policy fix (taxation mainly, especially in places like Kyoto). But this runs into the immense demand created by 2), which is a harder problem for one country to solve. And 3) is the biggest of all questions, like saying smartphones are destroying our humanity, and one I don’t pretend to have an answer to, except that it should be something other than this. Just trying to observe that the current approach is not exactly a recipe for a bright urban future
Glad to see Cocoroom! One of the few places doing it right. Why can't that way of doing become a TikTok trend :-D
On my last visit, just as the Expo was getting rolling, I felt Osaka changed a whole lot, not just since pre-pandemic, but even in the several months since my last visit! The Airbnbs were one rapid change, also the seemingly high level of waste on technology in the public sphere: 100% dazzle, 0% useful-improvement-on-what-was-there-before.
Even though I agree with your sentiments here, it is difficult to wrap my head around the things that are happening in Osaka in particular.
Well, another reason, I think, to focus energy on (as you are) local efforts that cherish where we are, and who we are :-)
Yes, like the facial recognition gates at the metro! So much energy expended in the wrong direction.
Writing this made me a little uncomfortable because it’s not an area (or a city) with which I have much of direct relationship, and I wasn’t there long enough to do justice to any local perspectives. I cannot say I’ve wrapped my head around what’s going on either. Hopefully I didn’t get out over my skis on what is mostly just immediate impressions.
I will return to this issue of digital vs local worlds in other forms, as I find it preoccupying much of my thoughts in this strange age. I share your sense that the best form of resistance is to create and cultivate local spaces where alternatives can survive and thrive.
Those gates! Top of my 2025 useless technology list...
Great observation! I remember when I stayed next to Kamagasaki in 2013, I had no idea about the area and just saw a cheap hostel. I emailed my professor in Hiroshima, and he suggested "Check out Tobita Shinchi, but don't take photos, the yakuza don't like it." It certainly was a different Japan I encountered there.
I, too, wonder what's after the Airbnb-ification. Berlin is in a similar situation and while they did pass a law prohibiting using apartments only for short term rentals, it takes a long time to process all pending cases. In June, they announced, that 8000 apartments for short term rental (and other variations) were forced to become normal residential long term apartments again.
Taking the long view: More than a hundred years ago, residential buildings with huge apartments were built for the bourgeois. They included rooms for servants and such. Now, these buildings still stand and (if they got lucky) the apartments are shared by low income families or students. It's a different kind of gentrification, albeit very slow, it took two wars and the Berlin Wall to achieve it – and it looks to be slowly undone by capital moving now. However, this might shift once more.
Yeah I think the area back then was very much backpackers etc. I guess what I noticed this time was what seemed like a wider range of people staying there: older couples, families, etc. so the larger style of accommodation is quite apparent.
Interesting about Berlin! Big apartments in old buildings definitely allow for a certain type of gentrification and transformation to occur. I am often more pessimistic about the future adaptability of some of the new construction in Japanese cities, because the size/relationship to the surroundings does not allow for easy conversions (another reason why it’s important to save older structures!). But yes I think some of these here will end up being converted to regular housing too.