Hotels in Japan

I spent the weekend booking rooms in 4 hotels. I got reservation confirmations from all 4, but to the best of my knowledge, only 1 of them asked for credit card info when making the reservation. They all have cancellation policies that would suggest they should know my cc details to enforce (10% fee if cancelling less than 48 hours before, etc) but I only remember filling in these details for one hotel.

Is this normal Japanese hotel behaviour? Are times so tough that they're willing to trust people will turn up?

I'm a little worried that in my mind I've got quite a tenuous grasp on these rooms. Since there's nothing stopping me just not turning up, there's nothing stopping them giving them away to the first guy who rolls up with a fistful of yen. I've got confirmation emails, but there's nothing I can do if there's no physical rooms available.

mgal,

In my experience, that has always been the norm in Japan, and is nothing to do with "the times being tough". There is no reason either to assume that they will reassign your room to someone else unless you fail to turn up by the specified time.

We have stayed in many hotels, with no credit card details previously supplied, and have arrived late at night on occasions. All hotel reception staff have been very helpful, and all our bookings were honoured without problems.

Thanks, both. Just needed some independent confirmation that all was well :)