Where to stay in Japan: taxes, check-in and onsen etiquette

A growing number of Japanese cities levy a lodging tax (宿泊税) charged per person per night. Booking sites usually show it as “taxes and fees payable at the property,” so it turns up as an unexpected cash or card charge at the front desk.

More municipalities add one every year, so if you’re staying somewhere that isn’t in this table, expect a small per-night charge and check the city’s official page.

Staying at a hot spring? There is usually a separate bathing tax (入湯税) as well — the national reference figure is ¥150 per person per night, though each municipality sets its own amount. It’s a different tax with a different purpose, so being charged both is normal, not a mistake.

If you don’t have an address in Japan, the hotel is required by law to record your nationality and passport number in its guest register, and to keep that register for three years. Most properties satisfy this by photocopying or scanning the photo page.

• Carry the physical passport, not a photo of it. This is also the rule that makes tax-free shopping work, so you should have it on you anyway.
• Foreign residents with a Japanese address are not covered by this requirement — if you live here, a hotel asking for your residence card is doing so under its own policy, not this law.
• At hotels, check-in usually starts around 15:00 and check-out is 10:00–11:00, but ryokan vary a lot. Both will usually hold your bags before and after.

• Business hotel — compact, functional, near stations. The default for a one-night stop.
• Ryokan — tatami rooms, futon bedding, often dinner and breakfast included. This is the format usually priced per person, so two people pay roughly twice one person’s rate rather than sharing a room price.
• Capsule hotel — a sleeping pod with shared baths. Low-cost, and increasingly comfortable.
• Private rentals (民泊) — legal, but capped at 180 days of operation per year under the private lodging law that took effect in 2018. Registered properties must display their registration number, and the big booking platforms require it. If a listing has no number, treat that as a red flag.

One more rule that surprises visitors: occupancy limits are taken seriously. Booking a twin room and quietly adding a third person is not a minor infraction here — it can mean extra charges or being turned away, and the reason they give is fire-safety headcounts.

Communal bathing has a fixed sequence, and following it is most of what “etiquette” means. Nobody minds a visitor who is visibly trying.

Tattoos are the one real obstacle. In a 2015 survey by the Japan Tourism Agency, about 56% of bathing facilities did not admit guests with tattoos, about 31% admitted them without conditions, and about 13% allowed them under conditions such as covering the tattoo with a sticker. We could not find a more recent nationwide survey, so treat those figures as dated — but the practical advice still holds: check the facility’s policy in advance, carry cover stickers for small tattoos, and look for private baths (貸切風呂) or rooms with their own open-air bath if covering up isn’t realistic.

• Check whether the price is per person or per room. Overseas booking sites default to per-room thinking; Japanese ryokan plans, especially with meals, are usually per person.
• Assume the lodging tax is extra and budget a few hundred yen per person per night for it, more in Kyoto.
• Meal plans are part of the room rate at ryokan. A “room only” rate and a “two meals” rate are different products, not an upsell at the desk.

Tax rates were checked in July 2026 against the municipalities’ own pages, including Kyoto City, Osaka Prefecture, Kanazawa City, Fukuoka City and Hokkaido. The guest-register rule comes from the Hotel Business Act as explained by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; the bathing tax reference figure from the Ministry of Finance; and the tattoo survey from the Japan Tourism Agency’s 2015 study, reported here.

Tax rates and facility policies are as of the last check and change often; confirm with the city and the property before you travel. We do not quote room rates because they move constantly. This page contains no affiliate links; links go to official or primary sources.