Government wants to convert love hotels to cover accommodation shortage for tourists

How to solve a problem like a hotel shortage? Simple. Convert love hotels.

After all, if media reports are to be believed, Japan is sexless and the love hotels are not being used by couples, but rather ordinary businessmen.

Tokyo is currently experiencing a massive tourist boom and it has led to numerous new hotels springing up, especially in Shinjuku. But it is still not enough, particularly as the government wants the inbound tourist numbers to continue growing as we head towards the 2020 Olympics.

According to a Kyodo News article, the government wants love hotels to provide the shortfall.

The occupancy rate of over 10,000 such hotels across the country is around 40 percent on weekdays, according to a hotel industry body, making them a potentially useful resource to meet growing lodging demands.

One area of concern is the providing of accommodations for families. Under the law on “amusement businesses,” those aged under 18 are barred from entering love hotels.

The government also recently told the state-run lender, the Japan Finance Corp., to increase loans to operators of the hotels if they ask for financial assistance to convert the facilities into regular hotels, according to the government source.

The government also plans to increase awareness among hotel operators of the state lender’s enhanced funding for such remodeling, the source said.

In addition to remodeling of rooms for family use, operators need to be equipped with facilities to serve food to be accredited as regular hotels.

We presume they will get rid of the sex toys in the fridge and change the TV so the default channel isn’t porn.

But what about the fact that love hotels, especially in central Tokyo, are located in clusters of other love hotels? So if, say, one or two hotels in Kabukicho or Shibuya convert, it still means unwitting foreign visitors have to wander the streets of the love hotels searching for their presumably now slightly less garish-looking hotel while horny couples filter around them. We don’t imagine this will go down well with families, or perhaps they will be oblivious.

After all, according to some tourists, you can end up accidentally booking into a love hotel thinking it is regular accommodation.

Perhaps this kind of case will also increase in the lead-up to 2020.