Japan’s government is planning to make it easier for property owners to rent out their rooms to tourists and other short-term guests.

The move is in preparation of an expected influx of foreign tourists, now that COVID-related border measures have been eased.

The type of lodging is called “minpaku” in Japanese. Currently, owners are legally allowed to rent out their homes to tourists. But they are required to employ property-management firms if they are absent from the sites to handle complaints and for cleaning.

Only people with a certain type of real-estate license or at least two years’ experience in property transactions are eligible to run a minpaku business.

The tourism ministry plans to scrap that requirement by the end of March 2024.

It will replace it with less demanding measures now under consideration. One proposal is to require that the owners take a 20-hour long course, seven hours of seminar participation and finally an exam.

About 2,500 firms and individuals are already registered as minpaku operators. Most of them are in big cities.

One aim of the reformed regulation is to encourage more people to set up lodging in rural regions, boosting local economies.

Source: NHK

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