00:02 John Daub: Hello, everybody. We are live and going to be talking about the Airbnb rules and regulations, some of the things that you might need to know if you were to get an Airbnb. Because I got this question not too long ago from a viewer who wanted to know, are Airbnbs really not that popular in Japan? That struck me as odd because I thought that they were popular. So I looked a little bit into this and I discovered that it is quite complicated—well, not complicated, but there's so many rules and regulations in Japan that make it unique to other countries that might impact whether or not you decide to stay in an Airbnb. And we've got a live chat here as this is a live show. We'll be talking with some of the viewers and their questions about this. That's you. And you can leave your comments down in the bottom of this video as well, which our community will either answer or I will, and take a look at it within the next few hours.

01:02 John Daub: I've read some things about it. I'm not sure if it's true or not. This viewer did not explain a little bit more about what they wanted to know about Airbnb, but it made me really curious. So I decided to look into this a little bit more. And I found that there's a lot of issues with regards to the volume is low. A lot of people in the live chat are saying I hate Airbnb. Really? I'd like to know why. This is from Ruiz FD. I stayed in one on Sado Island. You can take a look at that in a live stream I did a week ago. I gave you a tour of the Airbnb. It was spectacular, although quite pricey because of the timing. We went at a high, high, high season for the island in Sado during the Earth Celebration. I think Ruth had said that she had paid about 300,000 yen, which is about $2,000 for three nights, which is a lot, but it had enough space for six people, which when you do the pricing of it, it's a lot cheaper than a hotel for the luxury that we got. 'Cause the room had a sauna and a jacuzzi and it was right off of a shotengai (covered shopping arcade) right near the port, where the ferry comes in. So it was very convenient.

02:51 John Daub: But that was maybe my second experience staying in an Airbnb in Japan for us. Typically, that's not something that we do inside of Japan. I'm talking about my family in particular. I do know that it's fairly popular, more popular I think with foreign tourists than it is with Japanese, but in some places out in the countryside, it might be the only accommodation available. There aren't a lot of hotels, particularly during that era where nobody could come to Japan. A lot of hotels, family-run places went out of business and the Airbnb, I would hope is something that is a bright spot to Japan's tourism industry because there's just not enough hotels here.

03:27 John Daub: A Y Y L M A O, which means laughing my ass off. I've been to Japan three times, always Airbnb, super easy. I actually went onto Airbnb and tried to see if I could make this work. So this is the Airbnb website on my smartphone and I'm going to pause this at certain times. I just put up a place. I want to find a place on September 24th to 26th, three people. One of them is my son Leo, let's say, and my wife Kanae, and these are the places. It's intriguing to me because as a resident of Tokyo and I have an apartment here, these places look like apartments. It's quite a comfortable stay and the prices seem pretty affordable. 6,750 yen, which is about $45 with the exchange rate, 9,500 yen, which is about $65. These are just spitball figures here. It looks very comfortable, doesn't it? Setagaya (Setagaya-ku, residential ward), not really known for having a lot of attractions. It's off of the Yamanote line. It's more of a residential place.

04:49 John Daub: So I decided to pick one place near Tokyo Skytree, which I figured would be really popular with tourists. Here's the one for Sumida-ku. It was 15,000 yen a night. It's a three-minute walk from Oshiage Station, which is the Tokyo Skytree, 20.9 meters squared. That's not that big. So these photos are deceptive in a good way for the owner. I know that if you do stay here, it looks really incredible. It's got these bunk beds. You can pull up pictures of it, like a second floor, a loft to sleep up there. So you can fit three people pretty comfortably, maybe four if you've got a family. It's got a little kitchenette there. I'm sure you're not going to do a ton of cooking. Maybe you get a cup of noodles or some convenience store whatever. It's got Netflix. It looks pretty comfortable. It's got internet, right? We went in here and we did it and it was reviewed pretty well. A T Home is the owner for four years. They've been doing it at self check-in, free cancellation for 48 hours before. So there's a lot of geeky things baked into this.

06:12 John Daub: I don't know too many people that have had a bad experience with Airbnb in Japan. I'm sure there are some, there always are, but I thought that this was interesting. So the owner had put in this please read section. About this space. The nearest station is Oshiage. It's easy access to Narita Airport, Haneda, Asakusa, Ginza, and Shibuya. Before I read this, 'cause I think it's fascinating and there's lots of issues with Airbnb in this. I asked ChatGPT, are there issues with Airbnb in Japan? And the answer was yes. There have been several issues with Airbnb Japan over the years, though the situation has improved as regulations have evolved. Some of the key issues include regulatory changes in 2018. And we're going to get into this, the regulations for short-term rentals because they're minpaku (minpaku, private lodging law). There was a new regulation for short-term rentals and this included Airbnb, probably a reaction to Airbnb. This helped a lot, but I think it hurt Airbnb owners a lot.

07:30 John Daub: Number one here, the neighborhood complaints. This is something that a lot of owners and neighborhoods have had as a complaint. And these neighborhood complaints lead to these laws where they complain to the city office and the city office makes these ordinance laws, regulations where you can't. It's weird. In places in Tokyo, like I live in Chiyoda-ku (Chiyoda ward), you're not allowed to have minpaku on the weekdays. You can only have them on the weekends. And Taito-ku (Taito ward), which is a ward just next to Chiyoda, has different laws, different ordinances that are very unique. There's cultural differences. Japan has specific customs and etiquettes that may not be familiar to international visitors, like garbage disposal, loud behavior. Misuse of facilities have sometimes caused friction between Airbnb guests and the local community. Safety and security concerns, particularly in cases where properties are not properly maintained and monitored, have also been raised. Security is certainly an issue. Japan's pretty safe though, but we always see secret cameras and things like this as well in places. Economic impact, Airbnb has been beneficial for tourism. There have been concerns about its impact on the local housing market, particularly in popular areas. There's a lot of people who want to flip akaiya (akiya, empty houses) and turn them into Airbnb. And a lot of neighborhoods are against this, despite the fact that they probably need to do something with the akiya.

09:17 John Daub: And then the tourism overload in some places, particularly popular tourist places like Kyoto, the influx of Airbnb visitors have contributed to over-tourism. This is a very important issue. So I think it's important to think about this. Now, as you just heard from ChatGPT, we take a look now at what the owner of this particular property has written in as rules. And I think that a lot of this is probably consistent with other places. This is not a party room. This is a place to relax or stay, which I guess makes a lot of sense. But it's a lot, because I think a lot of people will come to Japan, in particular those under the age of 25. I've seen the Halloween events in Shibuya, mostly kids under the age of 25 who come here internationally and Japanese as well. No one's off the hook, because they've caused a lot of problems in the past. And it just takes a few, but those few kept increasing the numbers and that leads to issues. So I'm sure that they've had issues. And in particular with the neighborhoods, now Japanese neighborhoods, this is the biggest problem that we're everything is so close. So if you're having loud music and partying, your neighbor is right next to you. So internationals who are coming here probably aren't used to that. You're used to having a house where you can do whatever you want. And that's not the case in Japan. You get thin walls. Even I know after 10 PM, I'm not going to be doing jumping jacks because I don't want to disturb the people below me. I'm not going to be banging the floor at 6 AM.

11:01 John Daub: So you're always thinking about the people around you. And apparently that's not always the case. These people come from different cultures. Anyways, John, what happened to the storm? I'll get into that a little bit later. It's sunny right now in Tokyo with blue skies. So if that answers your question for now, if there are noise complaints from the other rooms, we will charge a response fee of 50,000 yen per report. That's pretty expensive. That's like $350 for each report. And it doesn't say whether or not it's true or not. And if someone reports you, there's a good chance it's true more so than it's not true. So again, like to get a noise complaint, that probably means that this owner is under a lot of pressure because they've had some parties at this location. Additional cleaning fees may occur with large amounts of trash or damage in the room. This is an issue because people do leave a lot of trash behind, and Japanese owners have to pay for the trash. In particular, sodai gomi (sodai gomi, bulky waste). Sodai gomi is really large stuff like a sofa or stuff that wouldn't fit in a typical trash bag because it's too large to be submitted. There are just some guidelines to this, and you just can't put it to the curb to be picked up. So you have to call in advance, make a reservation, wait sometimes up to three weeks or a month, and then put it out on that specific day, and they'll pick it up after you buy seals from Family Mart or Lawson's or 7-Eleven at the convenience store, ABC stickers. They'll tell you when you call to make a reservation for your large garbage to be picked up. But it costs money to throw away a TV, and there'll be some people that will stay at the Airbnb and leave their TV in there or leave their luggage in there. If you have a big suitcase that you don't want, you can't just leave it in the Airbnb and expect the owner to throw it away because they have to pay for that garbage to be disposed of. So I can understand why this as somebody who's a resident of Tokyo, I can understand why the owner put that stipulation in there.

13:15 John Daub: Let's go through this here because it's fascinating. The accommodation is close to the main road, so there's traffic noise. There is no elevator. That's also important to know. Some people want an elevator. You don't want to climb steps. Make sure you check that out for sure. The entire room is completely reserved for you. There's no sharing with other guests. Just basically, if you make a reservation for four people, don't bring a fifth person, which makes sense. And you're going to understand why when you look at the Minpaku laws of 2018. And their owners are under a lot of stress. It's not just you. You're only thinking about yourself. I want you to think a little bit about the owner. When you take an Airbnb, they're trying to make money. But a lot of these prices are pretty good compared to the hotels. They have Wi-Fi, double bed, blah blah blah. So everything is there that is required and more from the Minpaku law. Normally, there's only a set of towels. Make sure you bring your own towel or you can buy them for a really cheap price, especially if you're going to be staying for a long time. It's probably a good idea to have your own towel. You might want to buy your own pillowcases or pillows. Sometimes that makes for a more comfortable stay. Again, it's not a hotel. Look, I had these really uncomfortable buckwheat pillows. Japanese traditional pillows have buckwheat or grain inside of it. It's like sleeping on a bag of rocks. So sometimes you want to bring your own pillow. Please coordinate the online check-in in advance. We didn't meet the owner in Sado. There was actually a box to get the key. The owner gave you a code. You picked up the key and we were able to get in. I thought that was really convenient. Feel free to use the washing machine and detergent. We had a washing machine in Sado as well and it was free. Nightwear is not provided. A lot of Japanese hotels have yukata (yukata, light kimono) or pajamas. Just keep in mind that Airbnbs are not like typical hotels. You got to bring your own. Will not allow guests with symptoms such as fever. They're probably worried about you know what. If the police call due to complaints or noise, it talks about that fee. Please take large items with you. Items left behind that are over 30 centimeters in size will incur a bulky waste fee, 3,300 yen. The stickers aren't actually that much, but the trouble to have to store the stuff is maybe the issue. You have to wait. It's not like you can throw it away the next day. You sometimes have to wait like a month. So this owner's going to have to store your luggage for a month until they can pick it up for the trash. This is not a party room. And then the registration number, which is required by law. This is pretty standard stuff, but gives you an idea that there's a lot of stress for the owners.

16:30 John Daub: So I went in and I looked at the reviews here. Let's read a couple of these. These are always interesting. Very well located next to Skytree and well arranged nearby subway restaurants and entertainment. The only downside is that the apartment looks bigger than in the photos, which I get when you look at 20 square meters. Americans don't do square meters, so you don't get an idea. That's not a lot of space. I've seen rooms that are a lot smaller, but that's not a lot of space. So at three people is doable. But after you open the suitcases, it looks like it's going to be a lot more. Maria writes, the place is small. Couldn't connect with the Wi-Fi. So pretty much nonexistent Wi-Fi. Somebody said it was on the first floor. So you get these issues with the Wi-Fi. How important is Wi-Fi for you? Do you have your own pocket router? This one, this person gave it three out of five stars because the Wi-Fi is extremely slow. The modem is on the ground floor. We reached out to the host to resolve, but asked us to reboot the modem, which didn't help. So they just are not set up for the modernity of tourists. Look, you probably should be using the TV anyways. Go outside and enjoy Tokyo. The couch is lumpy and uncomfortable. Otherwise, the location was amazing. The beds were comfy. The private bath with a separate toilet shower and sink is helpful. That's standard in Japan. Very efficiently. The place was great. Exactly as described. Suburb location. Three minutes walk from the subway station close to Skytree and supermarket. This is also close to the cake vending machine and near Tokyo Skytree.

18:52 John Daub: I want to pull up really quickly and then talk about the Minpaku Law. So the Minpaku Law is kind of strict and makes it hard. There's a lot of requirements that are necessary. To sum this up, they have to keep track of all of the guests and report this every two months. You can't operate a minpaku more than 180 days of the year. I don't know if that's 180 days of people who are staying, or if that counts against you, or you can only operate from like January 1st to June 30th or whatever. The point of me showing you this is that there are a ton of things that you need to show to prove and get that business registration number that you saw. You probably need to register your minpaku on the Airbnb site. So Airbnb owners are under a lot more stress than they would be in other countries that makes it more complicated. And I think with the really crazy garbage laws, the recycling and garbage disposal in Japan in residential areas is something that is super sensitive. These are the laws that I'm telling you about in Shibuya residential areas. You can't have them on the weekdays. There's actually a link in the description of this video if you want to take a look at this. The reason I wanted to show you is to give you an understanding that the owners have a lot of responsibilities, not just for the law. And this is why my wife was thinking about turning her grandfather's house into a minpaku to rent out. It's really hard. And there's a lot of things against you to do something like this. That's why there aren't more Airbnbs in Tokyo. That's why there aren't more out in the countryside because there's just a hassle. And after you've had a couple of bad experiences with tourists, yeah, maybe even 10% of them, one out of every 10 is a really bad experience for the owner. You start to think, is it really worth it? Maybe I just sell the house. And it's not easy to sell these houses actually, 'cause they were akiya to begin with. So I think there's a lot of things against the owners here and that's why the Airbnb is not really popular in Japan. I'm just shocked when I go out to the countryside and there's no Airbnb options at all. And you see akiya all over the place.

22:07 John Daub: If you're watching live, I want you to write in your questions. Honestly, these strict laws will keep lazy owners away. So many countries are facing housing issues and popular destinations because folks buy property, set it and forget it. They're just remote. That's really good feedback. I can tell you, you're probably right on this because the owners that we dealt with in Sado, they were really on their game. Our air conditioner broke while we were there and they fixed it while we were away. If you haven't seen that video, definitely check it out. I gave you a tour of this Airbnb and I'll put the link in the description of this video as well. Japanese Island Port Town Street View, Sado Island. You can take a look at it.

23:41 John Daub: Beyond Travels writes in here, I'll be staying in a capsule hotel instead of Airbnbs if you come to Japan. I don't recommend capsule hotels. I don't think that First Cabin is a capsule hotel. I think they use that because of the novelty of it. A capsule hotel is meant for business travelers. It is literally a capsule. It's not supposed to be comfortable. You're not supposed to bring luggage there. It's for crashing, meaning you're a business dude, you're doing business in this town and you just want to crash there. But the novelty of staying in a capsule, which is a Japanese concept, is an experience people want to try and it's cheap. And a lot of these places since I made a video about this, I think in like 2015, it was one of the first, and a lot of people copied it. Afterwards I remember the manager when I went back there a little later, contacted him. He said, you won't believe how many tourists came in. He said, now it's like 80% tourists. And he was thanking me, but also he said that a lot of issues came as a result of it. Tourists are not quiet. They don't understand that people are sleeping, that in the capsules you have to be quiet. They don't understand how to take the Japanese bath. They don't understand about cleanliness and thinking about the people around you. So he had to change his model a little bit. And I think that's what he was trying to do. He was trying to make it more for foreigners than Japanese. And that turned off Japanese customers. So you can see it's hard to do what Japanese customers want and what foreign tourists want. So that's how First Cabin, in my opinion, came out to be what it is. It's not a capsule hotel, it's a compromise between what the tourists really want. And capsule hotels are not clean. I've stayed in maybe about 10 of them over my years, not by choice. That was the only place. And every time they have nasty channels that I just discover, and I do watch for an extended period of time because it's not something I would see at home. If there's dirty channels on the channel and there's a tissue box inside the capsule, I bet you there's some action going on. I did not see them washing the walls. I would not blacklight a capsule hotel bed area ever. Don't do it. It's logic. You put one and two together. That's why I don't take your family there. Don't take your kids there. It's not a family place. A capsule hotel is nasty. It's for business dudes. Usually they're single for a reason. Stuff happens in those capsules. The snoring is atrocious. It's so loud.

28:01 John Daub: So there you go. There's my take on that. Capsule hotels don't make sense for a week long stay. But everybody's different. Peso, really? You know better now. Capsule hotels smell. They are not as clean as they appear. Don't get me started on the snoring. Now there's another concept. Not all capsule hotels are capsule hotels. Some of them I found in particular, there's a great place called A&K Guest House in Noboribetsu. They have a share room and I typically will stay there. It's only like 3,000 yen a night. It's very convenient, right next to my friend's toy store in Noboribetsu. Maybe you've seen that, the Japanese toy episode with my friend Matt Alt. And Matt stayed there as well. They're basically bunk beds, but they've set it up with some DIY and put walls around it, give you privacy with a curtain there. And it reminds me of a capsule hotel, but it's basically a bunk bed. So you have an outlet and everything in there. My definition of a capsule hotel is probably different than what you guys think is a capsule hotel. And I don't think First Cabin is a capsule hotel. It's a first class cabin. That whole concept came out as a result of more tourists wanting the capsule hotel experience, but a compromise on the space and the privacy levels that were needed at the time.

31:45 John Daub: I wouldn't want to stay in those love hotels. Disgusting. Well, look, I actually love the fact that you brought this up. When I was younger, I stayed in love hotels when I traveled with my girlfriend because it was just easy to get around and they were cheaper. Sometimes they have PlayStations, karaoke machines, jacuzzi. You don't know what happened on the bed that you're sleeping in the night before in any hotel. You know what's happening in the love hotels. But I've been in normal hotels and I've done the stuff in them. So let's use your common sense. A hotel is a hotel. Any bed's gonna become a love hotel, pretty much. Love hotels are basically public brothel beds. I don't think it's that bad. There's a chain of love hotels that I featured on NHK World, Tokyo Eye, and I would stay there again. It was called Bali An. It's run by Paseo, which is like a normal chain. It's like you're going on a stay in Bali with your wife. You know, if you've got kids and you live in a small apartment, you're not doing much. So you got to go to a love hotel. It's not always what you think. I saw a love hotel in my first town of Okazaki, a couple hundred meters away. Parents want a place to go. And you know, we got to get Japanese population up. My son sleeps with us. It's not the best situation right now, but we intend to move. Frank the Tank, you might be right, but brothel beds. I think all beds are, you should have the thinking that every bed that you slept in, somebody probably did the deed in there and you're not the first. Bali An is the APA hotel of love hotels. Probably. What I loved about the Bali An is people don't check in in a sketchy way. In a love hotel, you don't even see the owner's face, you just see their hands and you pick a room. You push a button and the light would go off and you reserve it. You'd pay cash at the thing. And then you'd follow lights up to your room. Bali An was not like that. It was like a hotel room. You would meet and see the other couples.

36:54 John Daub: Airbnb is fun. And I liked the fact that Airbnbs have themes. They probably stole that from love hotels, because when I was that age and I did go to love hotels, there was like an Alice in Wonderland room. Some of the love hotels have themes to them. That is fun. That is experience. And if you're in your twenties, you should definitely do a love hotel if you're coming with your significant other. You can stay for the night. And in fact, most people do rests in Tokyo, which is like a three-hour rest. You can stay starting at like 8 p.m. or 10 p.m. until the next day. And this was actually a recommended option by the city of Tokyo. The city of Tokyo recommended that travelers to Japan, because of the hotel crunch in 2019, consider a love hotel as an option for the night. You can't make reservations for a love hotel. You just go and see what's available. But if you go to Shibuya or Ikebukuro or even Shinjuku, there were quite a lot of them. And they're pretty affordable for what you get. If you can kind of close your mind off to what was on there once.

38:27 John Daub: So Airbnb, I hope that ties it up for you. When you do come and stay at an Airbnb, please keep in mind that the owner is probably in the city. If their neighbors are around, probably struggling. And they could lose their business if bad people stay there. And you don't have any idea about the sensibilities of Japanese neighborhoods. I think an Airbnb for a long-term stay is very interesting because it also gives you the opportunity to experience what life is like in Tokyo. And that is kind of stressful because you have to abide by certain neighborhood rules. And even if you're at a hotel, you don't have to. But if you're in an Airbnb, you do. You have to take out your trash. And maybe there are some things listed in English for you. But it's not that easy for Airbnb owners to comply to local rules as well as to the wishes of the people who stay there. So maybe that's why they should perhaps charge a little bit more. Interesting discussion. Again, leave your comments below. Ask me a question about anything. If it's interesting and something that's going to apply to a large audience, I will definitely take it up and discuss it in this kind of a format. Either outside walking around in the world or here in my house in Tokyo where the sunshine is coming in and out like crazy right now. The typhoon is done as far as I know. It's swirling out in the Pacific, but it's into a tropical depression and now just a bunch of rain. And there's going to be some pressure systems that force it out. So eventually it's going to go out to sea and just break apart. Keep that in mind when you're planning your trip to Japan.

40:21 John Daub: Thanks for the members and the Patreon supporters. This month's postcard is the largest firework shell in the world, a 420-kilogram mega shell being loaded into a cannon. And I had access to film that twice. It's a pretty cool thing when you make friends with the somewhat insane creator of a mega shell fireworks that he launches two times a year. If you're in Japan in the middle of September, I highly recommend you checking out the Katakai Fireworks Festival in Niigata. It's about a two-hour trip from Tokyo. You got to go to Nagaoka, and then you can take a bus or local train there, and you can walk. You don't have to go to the event space. You can see it anywhere in the town. Loads of street food. There's not a lot of places to stay. Just keep that in mind. Make sure you have a hotel reservation before you go, because this is at night, but it's over the course of two days, Saturday and Sunday, I believe, and they light up both nights. They have a 420 mega shell launched up both nights. The night I was there, it didn't work, and last year I went on a tour and I got a chance to see the Yonshakudama (four-foot shell). It was pretty incredible. It's the largest fireworks shell that's launched annually every year in Japan. I love Honda-san. He's an amazing man, a genius in his profession.

42:29 John Daub: All right, everybody, take care. I'll see you in another episode real soon. If you have any questions, again, leave them in the comments below. Anything about Japan, I'll do an episode about it, discuss it. In particular, if it has something to do about travel or you need some advice, I wanna know. We have a Discord server where you can ask people that are living here in Japan right now or traveling, and they're pretty happy to help you in the general chat. I sometimes chime in there as well, but it's nice to be able to have a friend if you need it or get in trouble or you need some advice. There's a good chance you'll find them on our Discord server. And I really do appreciate our ever-expanding community. What is it, 18,000 or 19,000 people there? It's humbling to have so many community members now on our Discord server. So thank you guys so much for being a part of that. And it's free. Anyways, see you in the next livestream. Matane (see you later).