Culture News

Kyoto's hotel tax rises up to tenfold: ¥10,000 a night at the top end, Japan's highest

Kyoto's new accommodation tax took effect on Sunday, March 1, raising the top rate from ¥1,000 to ¥10,000 per person per night for rooms costing ¥100,000 or more, Time Out reports. It is the first change since Kyoto introduced the tax in October 2018 and gives the city the highest accommodation tax in Japan. Time Out says the tax is usually paid at check-in, though some booking sites and travel agencies include it in the upfront price.

The five tiers per person per night are ¥200 for rooms under ¥6,000 (unchanged), ¥400 for ¥6,000–19,999, ¥1,000 for ¥20,000–49,999, ¥4,000 for ¥50,000–99,999 and ¥10,000 above that. Hong Kong's The Standard, reporting when the plan was approved, noted that students on school trips are exempt, that Kyoto had recorded 84.25 million visitors in the previous year amid complaints about crowded buses, and that revenue was expected to more than double to ¥12.6 billion.

India's Outlook Traveller converted every tier into rupees: a typical mid-range room adds about ₹580 a night. It listed planned uses including public transport, waste management, heritage preservation, multilingual information and an express bus between Kyoto Station and Higashiyama. Time Out tied the timing to the coming cherry blossom season and the aim to “better manage the massive number of tourists”.

How each outlet framed it

• Time Out — practical: what you pay, and when.
• The Standard — the overtourism background and the revenue plan.
• Outlook Traveller — costs in rupees and where the money goes.

Where the numbers differ: The Standard puts annual revenue under the old rates at about ¥5.9 billion; Outlook Traveller gives ¥5.2 billion. Both expect ¥12.6 billion under the new tax.