We’ve read disturbing reports that Japan’s love hotels are in danger and some commentators speculate that their numbers will even halve next year.
From January new rules mean that the love hotels that technically operate in the same category as ryokan (Japanese inn) will have to switch to being legally registered as love hotels. This will mean that these “fake love hotels” cannot be within two hundred meters of a school and will be forced to move. More seriously, the hotels will have just one month to submit the applications for the change, the supporting documents costing several million yen to prepare.
[Pic via jetsetta.com]
Love hotels are, of course, short-stay hotels favored by couples in need of the privacy which they can’t get at home. They are usually instantly recognizable by their garish and imaginative exteriors, as any visitor to Love Hotel Hill in Shibuya will attest. They are also examples of “third spaces“, locations that act as living/relaxation/work areas that are not usually possible in typical Japanese homes.
Diamond magazine claims that there may be as many as 35 thousand hotels currently legally registered as ryokan and that the fate of the whole nation’s love hotel industry lies in the balance.
Japan, not known for being a prudish country, has seen campaigns for this law change led by organizations like the “National Fake Love Hotel Removal Group” (全国偽装ラブホテルをなくす会).
So, should couples be worried? Probably not. The likely result is that business hotels in affected areas will simply start to offer daytime “rest” packages. Whenever there is demand there will be supply.
Post a Comment