Hokkaido's Niseko to Implement Accommodation Tax of Up to 2,000 Yen per Night
NTI ski

Visitors to Hokkaido’s Niseko mountain resort will be liable to pay up to 2,000 yen ($14) per night on hotel and “minpaku” private lodging stays under a new accommodation tax scheme approved Tuesday by Japan’s internal affairs minister.

The non-statutory tax approved by Takeaki Matsumoto is set to be introduced in the popular ski spot from November. It is expected to generate 162 million yen annually in revenue for the local government, with the funds to be allocated to improving local transportation and other measures to improve tourism.

Visitors will be required to pay between 100 yen to 2,000 yen per night based on their nightly room charge, which is divided into five brackets starting from less than 5,001 yen to 100,000 yen and over per person. School-related trips will be exempt from the tax.

Given the increase in foreign tourists, the town of Niseko had originally planned to introduce a fixed-rate tax that would collect 2 percent of the room charge, but changed strategy in consideration of the administrative burden on operators.

Accommodation taxes have already been introduced in Tokyo as well as Osaka and Fukuoka prefectures, and six municipalities including Kanazawa and Nagasaki, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Source: Kyodo News

Related Articles

Investors/Business
Information
Investing in real estate is a significant decision, and many potential new investors might be tempted to either give up due to a lack of clear understanding of the risks involved or to dive in without a proper basic knowledge of what to expect.
General, Investors/Business
News
Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated on Friday, July 8th, had aimed to transform and revitalize the economy. When his government took office it was faced with the daunting task of revitalizing Japan’s once dynamic economy, which was still in the shadow of the major slowdown during the so-called “lost decade” from around 1991 to 2001. Abenomics did help drive growth, though not at the pace that the country had seen during its post-war boom.
General, Investors/Business
News
Just as the yen's eye-popping plunge against the dollar grabs the world's financial market spotlight, investors will get a closer look on Thursday into the underlying state of the Japanese economy. Revised second quarter GDP data, and trade and current account figures for July, will give an insight into the yen's economic fundamentals, and offer clues to whether the level and pace of the currency's depreciation are justified.