Japan’s Osaka weighs new tax on inbound visitors in bid to make region ‘more attractive and comfortable’

Industry insiders and analysts broadly agree that an additional small daily levy would not place too much of a burden on travellers or put others off visiting Osaka – but they emphasise that the prefecture must keep its promise to plough those funds back into the tourism sector.

Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura announced on Wednesday that he would set up a panel to consider the new levy in April and to examine the effectiveness of an existing accommodation tax.

The prefecture currently imposes a levy of 100 yen (68 US cents) per person per at hotels that charge between 7,000 yen and 15,000 yen per night. The levy rises to 200 yen for hotels costing between 15,000 yen and 20,000 yen a night, and up to 300 yen per night for more expensive rooms.

While no figures have been decided upon for the proposed levy hike, Yoshimura is bullish about the plan, saying in a press conference, “For us to make Osaka prefecture more comfortable and attractive by implementing various tourism policies, why shouldn’t we ask for a little more?”

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Naomi Mano, president and CEO of high-end inbound travel firm Luxurique, supports the proposal as funds are needed to upgrade tourist facilities across Japan.

“Coming to Japan as a tourist today is not very expensive at all and there are a lot of places that require either new infrastructure for tourists or an update to existing facilities,” she told This Week in Asia.

The windfall would go towards creating new tourist information materials in multiple languages, she said, as well as replacing old-fashioned infrastructure in tourist areas, such as squat toilets and other facilities that foreign visitors were not