Mar 16, 2020 (Nikkei) - Akiko Yamamoto, a 32-year-old office worker from Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island, has a side business: She rents out an apartment in Tenjin, Fukuoka, Kyushu's largest downtown area, to tourists.
The practice that Airbnb began popularizing about a decade ago has a longer history in Japan. There's even a Japanese word for it, minpaku.
Tenjin is closer to South Korea than it is to Tokyo, making it an easy journey for South Koreans hungry for Fukuoka's famous ramen. It also draws a lot of Chinese and Western tourists.
But Yamamoto senses trouble. "I'm afraid tourists will stop coming," she said. "Then I'll have no way of making money with my apartment."
Her fear is not unfounded, and the slowdown that is already affecting Yamamoto and other side business owners like herself portends pain for Japan's economy as a whole.
Her business has also been hurt by the new coronavirus, which has led to a slew of cancelations from foreign visitors and has thrown the Tokyo Olympics into uncertainty.
Fukuoka, famous for its street food, draws many tourists from South Korea, China and the Western world. (Photo by Koji Zenke)
Yamamoto said she began her minpaku business almost two years ago when a set of regulations took effect, eliminating the legal gray area to which the industry had long been relegated. The law allows homeowners or renters to sublet rooms or entire homes for a maximum 180 days a year, if they meet a number of requirements.
Many homeowners taking advantage of the law have set up limited liability companies.
The legislation was billed as part of the Japanese government's efforts to accommodate surging tourist numbers and an expected crush of visitors for the Tokyo Olympics, a little more than four months away.
Minpaku has since emerged from the shadows as a legitimate growth industry, one that has been able to count on seemingly endless rivers of cost-conscious foreign travelers seeking cheap or alternative accommodations.
Last year, market researcher Fuji Keizai Networks estimated that the minpaku industry, including side services like consulting for landlords, would take in close to 130 billion yen ($1.2 billion) this year.
But that was before the new coronavirus began to spread and tourist numbers started to slide.
What was supposed to be a banner year for tourism is now under threat. On Feb. 1, Japan banned travelers from China's Hubei Province, whose capital, Wuhan, is the epicenter of the pandemic. It has since restricted other travelers, while fears of the virus have persuaded many other tourists to cancel their plans.
China is Japan's main source of tourists, and Chinese have been the biggest users of minpaku. According to the Japan Tourism Agency's most recent data, 28% of overall foreign minpaku users are Chinese. South Koreans are a distant second at 6%.
