Japanese Spa Town of Yugawara to Tax Lodgings as It Looks to Fund Tourism Promotion

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:59 JST, March 24, 2026

The town of Yugawara in Kanagawa Prefecture will introduce the prefecture’s first lodging tax on April 1. It hopes to secure a stable source of revenue that it can use to promote tourism, the town’s main industry.

Mayor Yoshifumi Naito, elected in June 2024, pledged to introduce the tax to improve tourism initiatives during his campaign.

According to the town’s tourism division, the tax will be ¥300 per night per person for stays costing less than ¥50,000, and ¥500 per night for stays costing ¥50,000 or more. Children under 12 and students on school excursions will be exempt. Based on past revenue from the bathing tax and other data, the town estimates that 615,000 people will pay ¥300 and 3,000 will pay ¥500, for a total annual revenue of ¥186 million.

The town government plans to use this revenue to improve its premium accommodation vouchers, or “Yugawara onsen smile coupons.” It aims to reduce the price of the voucher, which covers one night of lodging worth ¥10,000, from ¥8,000 to ¥7,000 and to add ¥1,000 in value that can be used to shop at stores in the town. It also plans to survey vacant storefronts in the shopping district and use the findings to encourage new businesses to open.

Hakone is preparing to introduce its own lodging tax in April 2028 and Kamakura is considering a similar move.