The government of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, which hosts Japan’s largest number of minpaku, a type of private lodging service, plans to ban such facilities in residential areas and around schools, which could affect about half of the nearly 4,000 lodgings in the ward. It’s rare for a new ban to also affect existing businesses, but the ward made the decision amid a rising number of complaints from local residents — many of them about guests who fail to follow trash disposal rules, make a lot of noise at night or smoke near their properties. There will be a grace period for existing facilities to wind up their operations once a ban is announced, but a ward official said details have yet to be hammered out.
In fiscal 2025 through March, Shinjuku Ward received 1,334 complaints on things such as trash, noise and the absence of signs indicating designated smoking or non-smoking areas, up from 82 in fiscal 2021. The ward has revoked licenses for five operators and 15 of their facilities since December 2025, preventing them from doing business for the next three years.
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