Japan Accommodation Tax 2026: Rates for Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka

What the accommodation tax adds, per person per night, where it appliesJPY 50 – 10,000The floor is JPY 50 in Shintoku, Hokkaido; the ceiling is JPY 10,000 in Kyoto City. Where the tax is a percentage, 2–5% of the room rate

The accommodation tax is a non-statutory earmarked tax that each local authority sets by its own ordinance, so both the amount and the tax-free threshold change with the place you sleep. In 2026 alone: Miyagi Prefecture and Sendai started in January, Kyoto revised its rates in March, and April brought in Hokkaido with more than twenty of its municipalities, Hiroshima Prefecture, Gifu City, Toba and Yugawara; Nagano and five of its municipalities followed in June, Kumamoto City and Miyazaki City in July, and Morioka City and Nasu Town on 1 October. The awkward part is where a prefectural and a municipal tax overlap: some prefectures simply add the two together, in others the prefectural tax halves as soon as the municipality levies its own, and in a few towns the municipal percentage already includes the prefectural share. Add up the figures in a list and the answer comes out wrong in Nagano, Miyagi, Kutchan and Nozawaonsen.

First, check whether this applies to you

• The municipality you are sleeping in has already started charging (where a date is marked “planned”, nights before that date are not taxed)
• The room rate per person per night is above that authority’s tax-free threshold
• You worked that figure out on the room-only rate (most authorities take out meals, the service charge and consumption tax)
• You have checked whether both a prefectural and a municipal tax apply there
• You have checked whether the amount your booking site charges already includes the tax

Answer all five and the total is settled at the booking screen. The two that catch people are the second and the third. The threshold is read per person per night, not per room: two people sharing a room at JPY 12,000 are at JPY 6,000 each, which puts them on the taxed side of a JPY 6,000 threshold. On a multi-night stay where the nightly rate fluctuates, each night is judged separately rather than averaged across the stay — so if Friday is JPY 5,500 and Saturday jumps to JPY 7,500 in Miyagi or Nagano (threshold under JPY 6,000), Friday is tax-free and only Saturday carries the tax. The purpose of the trip makes no difference. A business trip, an exam or a hospital visit is taxed on the same footing as a holiday.

The rules at a glance: rate, threshold and start date by region

In Hokkaido the prefectural and municipal taxes simply add up

In Hokkaido, the prefectural tax (JPY 100 / 200 / 500) and the municipal tax are added straight together. Sapporo’s official page prints the combined amount: JPY 300 a night under JPY 20,000, JPY 400 from JPY 20,000 to under JPY 50,000, and JPY 1,000 at JPY 50,000 and above. One night in Sapporo and one in Otaru on a three-day Sapporo and Otaru itinerary (both under JPY 20,000) therefore add JPY 600 per person, since Otaru’s flat JPY 200 plus the JPY 100 prefectural tax is also JPY 300. In Hakodate, where the city sets four bands (100 / 200 / 500 / 2,000), the combined total is JPY 200 under 20,000, JPY 400 from 20,000 to under 50,000, JPY 1,000 from 50,000 to under 100,000, and JPY 2,500 at 100,000 and above. In Akaigawa — the only municipality in Hokkaido with a threshold (under JPY 8,000) — a JPY 7,500 room pays zero village tax, but still pays the JPY 100 prefectural tax because the prefecture sets no threshold. The one exception to addition is Kutchan, where the town collects the prefectural share inside its 3% rate.

In Tohoku, Miyagi’s rate is JPY 300 across the prefecture

In Miyagi Prefecture the guest pays JPY 300 per person per night at any room-only rate of JPY 6,000 (before consumption tax) or more, whether inside Sendai or outside it. The “Miyagi JPY 100” figure often quoted online is only the prefectural share when you stay in Sendai (where JPY 100 prefectural + JPY 200 city = JPY 300); in Matsushima, Naruko Onsen or Akiu Onsen the prefectural tax alone is JPY 300, so the guest’s bill does not change. By contrast, both Hirosaki (in force since 1 December 2025) and Morioka (in force since 1 October 2026) charge a flat JPY 200 with no tax-free threshold. A JPY 5,500 business hotel near Sendai Station is below Miyagi’s threshold and pays zero, whereas a JPY 5,500 hotel in Morioka or Hirosaki pays JPY 200.

In Kanto, Nasu exempts under-12s and Tokyo moves to 3% in 2027

Nasu Town, which began charging on 1 October 2026, sets six bands: JPY 100 under 10,000, JPY 300 from 10,000 to under 20,000, JPY 500 to under 30,000, JPY 800 to under 50,000, JPY 1,500 to under 100,000, and JPY 3,000 at 100,000 and above. There is no monetary threshold, but children under 12 are exempt regardless of the room rate. For a family of two adults and two primary-school children staying two nights at JPY 15,000 per person per night, only the two adults are taxed (JPY 300 × 2 adults × 2 nights = JPY 1,200), saving the children’s JPY 1,200 outright. Tokyo’s planned shift to 3% on 1 April 2027 also raises the tax-free threshold from under JPY 10,000 to under JPY 13,000: a JPY 12,000 business hotel drops from JPY 100 today to zero, while a JPY 20,000 room triples from JPY 200 to JPY 600 and a JPY 50,000 room jumps from JPY 200 to JPY 1,500.

In Chubu and Hokuriku, Nagano halves its prefectural tax and Nozawaonsen includes it

Read the Nagano rows as combined totals. The prefectural tax is normally JPY 200 until 31 May 2029 (rising to JPY 300 from 1 June 2029), but it is halved to JPY 100 (later JPY 150) in the five municipalities that levy their own — Matsumoto, Karuizawa, Achi, Hakuba and Nozawaonsen. A night in Matsumoto is therefore JPY 200 in total during the transitional period (100 prefectural + 100 city), and JPY 300 from June 2029. In Nozawaonsen, Nagano Prefecture’s official collection manual confirms that the 3.5% rate (5.0% from June 2029) charged on rooms at JPY 6,000 or more already includes the JPY 100 prefectural share (JPY 150 from June 2029): on a JPY 10,000 room you pay JPY 350 in total (JPY 100 to the prefecture and JPY 250 to the village), not 3.5% plus JPY 100. Kanazawa has no prefectural tax stacked on top of its own, so a Kanazawa and Kaga Onsen trip is read off the city’s scale alone, on the rate before consumption tax.

In Kinki and Chugoku, Kyoto’s JPY 10,000 top band stands alone in Japan

Kyoto raised its schedule on 1 March 2026, replacing its old JPY 1,000 ceiling with five bands up to JPY 10,000 per person per night at JPY 100,000 and above. Neighboring Osaka Prefecture lowered its tax-free threshold from under JPY 7,000 to under JPY 5,000 on 1 September 2025, but kept its top band at JPY 500 for rooms of JPY 20,000 or more. Two people staying two nights at JPY 22,000 per person per night pay JPY 2,000 in Osaka (JPY 500 × 4 person-nights) against JPY 4,000 in Kyoto (JPY 1,000 × 4 person-nights). In the maple and cherry seasons a room-only rate above JPY 20,000 is common, so going to Kyoto outside the peak weeks drops the tax band along with the room rate.

In Kyushu and Okinawa, Fukuoka’s city share is not the total you pay

The figures most often misread in Fukuoka are JPY 150 and JPY 450. Those are the city’s share alone; the guest pays JPY 200 and JPY 500 once the JPY 50 prefectural tax is added. Only Fukuoka City has a JPY 20,000 band — Kitakyushu and the rest of the prefecture are a flat JPY 200. Neither the prefecture nor either city sets a threshold, and Fukuoka City’s Q&A states that a pre-school child in a JPY 3,000 room is taxable. Kagoshima City received ministerial consent on 30 September 2026 and is scheduled to begin charging a flat JPY 200 (with no threshold, exempting school trips) on 1 April 2027. In Okinawa, Nago is treated exactly like the other five municipalities: 1.2% municipal plus 0.8% prefectural, 2% in total (capped at JPY 2,000).

Where people get caught

What happens if you book an expensive room where the tax is a percentage

Across the whole list, the tax comes in two shapes. A flat amount is fixed within a band, so JPY 30,000 and JPY 49,000 pay the same. A percentage grows with the room rate. The authorities using a percentage are Tokyo from 2027, Okinawa Prefecture, Yamagata City, Tomakomai, Kitahiroshima, Kutchan and Nozawaonsen.

Two people, two nights, a room at JPY 50,000. In a flat JPY 200 municipality the tax is JPY 800. At 3% it is JPY 6,000 — seven and a half times as much. Okinawa does cap its 2% at JPY 2,000, but the cap only bites from JPY 100,000 a night. Where the tax is a percentage and the room is expensive, this is not a rounding error.

The opposite holds under a flat scale, where crossing a band boundary is what costs money and dropping one grade of room can drop the tax band with it. Two people staying three nights in an Osaka hotel at JPY 15,000 per person per night pay JPY 400 × 6 person-nights = JPY 2,400; move to a JPY 14,900 room and it drops to JPY 200 × 6 = JPY 1,200. In Kyoto, stepping from JPY 20,000 down to JPY 19,900 cuts the tax from JPY 1,000 to JPY 400 per person per night. Sorting a booking site by the room-only price makes those boundaries visible.

Questions we get: business trips, children, and how this differs from the departure tax

Is it charged on a business trip or a hospital visit rather than a holiday?

Yes. The accommodation tax does not look at why you are travelling. The exemptions are for participants and supervisors on school trips and on outings run by certified centres for early childhood education and nurseries, and even those vary from one authority to the next. Kumamoto City and Miyazaki City set no exemption at all beyond diplomatic reciprocity.

Do children count as a person?

As a rule, yes. If a child shares a bed for free (room charge JPY 0), no tax applies; if a room or futon charge is billed and exceeds the municipality’s threshold per person, age does not matter. The exception is Nasu Town in Tochigi Prefecture, where children under 12 are exempt regardless of the room rate. Conversely, in municipalities with no threshold such as Fukuoka City and Kyoto City, even a pre-school child billed JPY 3,000 is taxed.

Is this a different tax from the international tourist tax, the departure tax?

It is. The accommodation tax is a non-statutory earmarked tax set by a local ordinance; the departure tax is a national tax levied when leaving Japan. An overseas trip with hotel nights in Japan attracts both. The amount and exemptions for the departure tax (such as transit within 24 hours and children under 2) are in the article on the international tourist tax.

SOURCES

• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, press release on new and revised accommodation taxes (30 June 2026 — seven new authorities and the Tokyo revision) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, press release on a new accommodation tax (28 August 2026 — Unzen) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Miyagi Prefecture, Accommodation Tax (the JPY 300 rate and the split inside Sendai) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Nagano Prefecture, Nagano Accommodation Tax (transitional rates and the reduction where a municipality taxes) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Nagano Prefecture, Special Collection Manual for Nagano Accommodation Tax (p. 13: prefectural share included inside Nozawaonsen’s percentage rate) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Matsumoto City, Matsumoto Accommodation Tax (JPY 300 in total, JPY 200 during the transition) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Kyoto City, revision of the accommodation tax rates (from March 2026) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Fukuoka Prefecture, Accommodation Tax (the prefectural and city shares, and the total the guest pays) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa Accommodation Tax (2%, capped at JPY 2,000, and the commencement date) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Nasu Town, introduction of the Nasu accommodation tax (six bands; under-12s exempt) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14
• Kagoshima City, Accommodation Tax (ministerial consent granted 30 September 2026; scheduled for 1 April 2027) ↗Checked on 2026-10-14

Source: the primary sources above, plus each authority’s own accommodation tax pages (Sapporo, Kutchan, Morioka, Sendai, Hakuba, Karuizawa, Achi, Nozawaonsen, Kanazawa, Osaka Prefecture, Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Taxation, Hiroshima Prefecture, Fukuoka City, Kitakyushu, Kumamoto City, Miyazaki City) / the consent documents published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications / Checked on 2026-10-14 / Photo: 今紫, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons) / Featured image: Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)