A Japanese house, unfilled before it was renovated for private lodging, is seen on February 23, 2019 in Sabae, Fukui Prefecture. Yuki Minami The central government will soon make it easier for people to rent out minpaku, which are vacant apartments or rooms in houses, to travelers and vacationers.
It hopes to relax the requirements to get approval to run a private lodging business in the hopes that lowering the barrier to entry will help boost availability in rural areas.
A growing number of people want to rent out their properties as private lodging in the countryside, but many areas don't have enough private-lodging administrators who are willing or qualified to manage their real estates under the entrustment of owners, government officials said.
The transport ministry and industry groups are hoping that boosting availability will help attract more visitors to Japan, because vacant residences are increasing in number.
As of December 14th, Japan had only 18,514 residences available for private lodging and just 2,524 registered private-lodging administrators, according to data provided by the government and other sources.
The administrators must make sure the hygiene and safety of those borrowing the space and respond to complaints if the owner of the property is absent.
One of several requirements must be met in order to qualify as an administrator under the central government's guidelines, such as having at least two years of experience in housing transactions and management, and holding a license in either real estate brokerage or the management of apartment houses.
Real estate agents meet these conditions but they are concentrated in urban areas and few enter the minpaku rental business.
Last year, private-lodging industry groups called for the central government to relax regulations to make it easier to become an administrator.
The rules will be revised and the new training course will open as early as this summer, according to the transport ministry.
Ministry officials expect the course to consist of about 20 hours of study and seven hours of lectures, including how to prepare written agreements.
They expect a range of new applicants, from tourism and accommodation business operators to agricultural cooperative workers with experience in private lodging in farmers houses, along with local vitalization cooperators who are commissioned by local governments under a national framework.