Starting this month, Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward will loosen hotel building restrictions to encourage the development of new hotels to cater to a growing number of tourists.

An ordinance enacted in 2006 to limit the construction of Love Hotels also had an unintended effect of making it difficult to develop business hotels.

The revision to the Shibuya Ward Love Hotel Construction Regulation Ordinance was approved by councillors in June and went into effect on October 1, 2016.

Under the 2006 ordinance, hotels were required to have a front desk and lobby on the ground floor. This meant that mixed-use buildings with office space on the lower floors and a high-end hotel with a lobby on the higher floors were not possible.

The ordinance also required that no more than 20% of the rooms could have double beds. Under the new revision, this will not be required for hotels with over 100 guest rooms.

Since the introduction of the 2006 ordinance, the ward has only had 8 new hotels built. With the recent influx in inbound tourism, there is a shortage in hotel rooms.

Sources:
The Nikkei Shimbun, Septemer 6, 2016.
Shibuya City Office Homepage

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