Bunkyo Ward in central Tokyo has extended its weekday ban on minpaku to the whole ward for homes that are newly notified to the authorities. Minpaku is private home-sharing run under Japan's Private Lodging Business Act, which lets owners host paying guests in an ordinary home after filing a notification. Ward ordinances can limit when such homes may operate.

The ward promulgated the change on 7 October 2026 as Bunkyo Ward Ordinance No. 48, which amends its ordinance on the operation of residential accommodation businesses. The amendment comes into force on the day three months after promulgation, counted from the promulgation date, which is 7 January 2027. That date is a reading of the ordinance's own commencement clause. The ward has not yet stated the calendar date on its own pages.

Under the current rule, the restriction covers only listed zones. Bunkyo's guidance page names them as residential-only zones, residential zones, quasi-industrial zones and school districts, and says that in those areas a minpaku may not operate from Sunday noon to Friday noon. Ordinance No. 48 replaces that list with the whole of Bunkyo Ward. The weekday window itself is unchanged, so from commencement a newly notified home anywhere in the ward may host guests only between Friday noon and Sunday noon.

The ordinance also changes the steps for telling neighbours. A person planning to file a notification must hand out a written explanation to nearby residents and hold an information meeting, although the ward's rules may set cases where the meeting is not required. Operators must also inform neighbours when the details of their notification change. People who plan to file on or after commencement may carry out these neighbour steps before 7 January, and that notice counts under the new rules.

A further change requires an individual operator who has no address in Japan to appoint an agent who lives in Japan, with authority to handle everything relating to the business at that home other than court proceedings. Unlike the area and neighbour-notice changes, the agent requirement is not limited by the ordinance's transitional provisions to new filings, and the ordinance sets no separate deadline for existing operators.

The new restricted area applies to notifications filed on or after commencement. For businesses notified before then, the ordinance says the previous rules continue to apply. The same split applies to the new neighbour-notice steps.

The ward's guidance page still shows the old zone list, because it predates the amendment. Background on the national 180-night annual cap and on Taito Ward's earlier ward-wide weekday rule is in the Japan section of Renting out property abroad: letting rules and tax in five markets.

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Sources

Sources read 9 October 2026 (SGT).