Japan’s Shinjuku to ban more than half of holiday rentals

Japan’s tourist hotspot Shinjuku will impose a ban on more than half of its holiday rentals, including homes on Airbnb, after a surge in complaints about visitors, an official has said.

Known for its buzzing commercial and entertainment district in the Japanese capital Tokyo, Shinjuku has about 4,000 short-term rentals, according to the ward’s official website. That is nearly 10 per cent of the country’s total.

But its large residential population has become increasingly exasperated with tourists who fail to properly dispose of rubbish, smoke where they are not supposed to and make too much noise.

A Shinjuku official supervising holiday rentals said on Monday that the district was “planning to revise the current ordinance … to ban private lodging” in residential zones and areas near schools.

“As the number of private lodging businesses has risen, complaints and troubles around them have increased,” the official said on customary condition of anonymity.

More than 50 per cent of short-term rentals in Shinjuku faced a ban under the new rules, he said, adding that the plan would formally be announced by the Shinjuku mayor on Tuesday.