News about Airbnb

Good Morning.....
next year I will return to Japan with my children and we have a question.
On our last trip in 03.2018 we had rented a beautiful apartment near Ueno in December 2017, which was not our surprise when in January or February the owner of the apartment canceled the reservation because in early 2018 airbnb was banned in Japan, I asked airbnb this and he confirmed, we got all the money back, but we had a lot of problems finding new accommodations for our trip in March and we paid much more!!!
Then came the pandemic and next year we will go for the fourth time.
In the current airbnb there are many apartments, could anyone tell me for sure if everything is back to normal and if we can trust airbnb again?
We knew there would be a law authorizing it, but I can't find anything on the net.
I found here on the forum something from 2018 !!! but we are in 2021 and we will be in 2022, maybe there is news?
Thank you very much.
Roberto

Japan introduced a "Airbnb law" in June 2018, an dthe law has not changed every since. It is summarized here:
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2025_vacation_rentals.html

It was a one rime rhing. When the rules changed. All airbrush properties had to go certification to be a short term rental accommodation property.

Everything was fixed 3-4 month after the whole event went down.

Thank you so much Uji (on the last trip you helped us a lot too) and H.for the quick response.
I apologize for not finding this article in the Japa-Guide.
Thank you very much
Roberto

How timely!!
I have been looking on Airbnb for next spring also. Exactly how can one tell if the property is correctly registered??

Each area/municipality has its own rules (like restrictions on days or week or time of year), and many will still operate illegally. AirBNB does not check the registration numbers are real (AFAIK) and there is no easy system to verify you are renting from a legitimate operator. AirBNB is just one of many property sharing companies in the space (last I checked there were more than 50 competing companies.)
Still, many people enjoy the style of accommodation and have no problems.

What @JapanCustomTours said.

Tokyo and Kyoto in particular had their own separate rules for AirBnBs and I think most AirBnBs even post the 2018 re-opening run afoul of these restrictions.

Most airbnbs you'll also find on booking dot com, agoda etc etc. So they ain't all that bad.

Most were brought up to a standard of requirement. Mainly emergency procedures. Or they didn't get back onto airbnbs listings.

When you view the listings nowadays, there is a reason the always seem to have photos with fire extinguishers or evacuation plans in their pictures. Cos these were the main sticking point for local governements.

@H,

I think it really varies. Booking, Agoda, Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels. they're all aggregator sites and they might limit who can write reviews on a property (though I imagine there are ways to get around it.) they don't check to make sure a property is not breaking any laws. It's like eBay is not checking every single item for sale to make sure they're not counterfeit.

A lot of wards in Tokyo and the city of Kyoto created their own separate laws regarding AirBnBs (there could be other areas as well, I just know those specific locations have their own laws.) The laws were not based around safety for AirBnB guests, but were laws based on what the residents of certain areas requested.

AirBnBs are not illegal on Oahu. But, a law just passed on Oahu confining AirBnBs to specific resort areas. If your AirBnB is not in a "resort area", you are in danger of having someone crack down on your illegal stay. Is AirBnB going to go through their listings to make sure they are following this new law? I doubt it. It's even more complicated in Japan since the laws involve specific days of the week and/or times of the year vs. specific locations.

Foreigners have not been staying in these AirBnBs since Covid, so who knows if there will be a crack down on them when Japan reopens. I'd personally rather not have to adjust my accommodations once I get to Japan. If I was booking an AirBnB someplace more rural or a standalone structure, I would probably go for it. But I would be hesitant of renting an apartment in Tokyo unless I actually knew the specific rules for the Tokyo ward I want to stay in. I am pretty risk adverse though and have had to book a second AirBnB after my first was cancelled with 3 days notice when traveling domestically. It's just not something I ever want to do Internationally.

It's not an arguement. Don't need a tl;dr response.

I also typed mainly. As in the main reason, but not the only reason. Lets not begin to dissagree due to lack of conprehension.