Japan | Tokyo Accommodation Tax to Be Raised to 3% Effective April 2027

The Japanese government has agreed to change Tokyo’s accommodation tax from a fixed-fee system to a rate-based system, effective April 2027. In addition, five other cities will also adjust their accommodation taxes, and Nago City in Okinawa will introduce a new accommodation tax.

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According to Kyodo News, on Tuesday (June 30), Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Yoshihide Hayashi agreed to change Tokyo’s accommodation tax to be levied at 3% of the accommodation charges. Taking a per-person per-night room rate of 15,000 yen (about 723 HKD) as an example, the new tax will be 450 yen (about 22 HKD), which is 250 yen (about 12 HKD) more than the current requirement.

Under the current Tokyo accommodation tax, rooms priced at under 10,000 yen (about 482 HKD) per person per night are tax-exempt; rooms between 10,000 yen and 15,000 yen are charged 100 yen; and rooms above 15,000 yen are charged 200 yen. Starting next April, the tax-exempt threshold will be raised to 13,000 yen (about 626.78 HKD).

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Of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s 30.6 billion yen (about 1.48 billion HKD) tourism spending for the 2025 fiscal year, the existing accommodation tax only covers 6.9 billion yen (about 330 million HKD). After the reform, Tokyo expects to collect 19.0 billion yen per year (about 920 million HKD).

The new accommodation measures will be implemented from 2027 onward. Nago City will begin collecting in February 2027; in Hokkaido, Wakkanai City and Kitahiroshima City will adjust in March and October respectively; and the four cities including Tokyo will adjust in April.

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