Japan has a glut of 8.5 million akiya, empty ‘ghost houses’ left to rot. Now Airbnb wants to fill them with tourists.

23 comments

1. TL;DR:

   * Airbnb wants to use a growing glut of abandoned homes in Japan to boost its business.
   * It told Nikkei that it wants to partner with local governments to encourage home owners to renovate.
   * Japan has around 8.5 million akiya, or empty homes, as its population shrinks and ages.

2. Low-key, if Japan would let me rent, I would probably easily move into one.

3. Is there an insurance or refund policy in case there’s spiritual disturbances

4. Those houses sound like a super cool experience until you learn about all the critters in the Japanese countryside that want to share the place with you. I know not everyone has as much a phobia against them as I do and will just throw them out or squat them but pretty sure most people won’t enjoy the cockroaches, centipedes (neither the small harmless ones nor the big dangerous ones), spiders (neither the cute little jumping one nor the big hideous ones) and vipers. I also wouldn’t want to be visited by wild monkeys and the like.

5. YouTube grifters are already all over this

6. How many of those 8.5m Akiya are romantic Kominka and how many are ramshackled sheet metal dumps in the middle of nowhere?

7. If they are such great investments then Airbnb, who has all the know-how of this opportunity, should purchase the assets which are being sold for almost nothing and take advantage of this amazing opportunity themselves….

   Smells to me like a Japan Country Manager hyping a nothing-burger for his overseas bosses who don’t know Japan.

   Instead of donating 1M dollars to some association they could have piloted this with a couple properties to prove it works.

8. I’m only interested if the ghost part is real.

9. Hell no, AirBNB already ruined so many cities with short term rentals like in Prague. We don’t need more

10. You know Japanese omotenashi is the best in the world because with your akiya ryoko you can get special unique Japanese omiyage, and for your convenience the kabi hoshi will be put directly in your hai at no extra charge! That is how you know Japanese okyakusama is kami.

11. I don’t think visiting a place in the middle of nowhere appeals to tourists. Sounds like a bit of PR work rather than a serious idea.

    Airbnb started as people with an extra room to rent in their home but quickly morphed into a monster that turns residential areas over to commercial hospitality. Like a lot of these “gig”/disruptive companies, it sounds good, but then it quickly comes apparent why a regulated industry had been established in the past.

12. Ask folks at /r/canadahousing how great Airbnb and turning residential real estate rentals into a huge commercial industry has worked out for Canadians

    I think now it costs about 300,000 yen per month for a tiny apartment to rent in Vancouver these days

13. I don’t really get the negativity in the comments. We need to provide better incentives for homeowners to clean up and renovate empty houses–provide better incentives for municipals and prefectures to take action as well.

14. my favorite part about this article is airbnb wants it to happen, but isn’t buying any of them or refurbishing them. it “hopes” locals/someone else will

15. Where are they going to find tourists who want to stay in rotten houses?

16. The government could take a positive stance on making sure that all residents have a home regardless if they are citizens or not. Since finding housing is so difficult for non Japanese. Of course, if these are more like shelters and not houses then it is just a plan that is set to fail.

    Though, if they remodel or completely build back simple basic housing. This can be a good initiative to promote the young generation to invest in their future home and families.

    Promoting manual labor skills and related schools to build these new homes in areas of the country that have been neglected. It can give younger generations the motivation to focus on other life obstacles since this one will be taken care of by the government.

17. Can I stay in one of them? It seems a whole lot better then down here where I find snakes, possums and a dozen red-backs spiders in my house.

18. I’m an Airbnb host.

    Just now. Juuuuuust today I went to an Airbnb meeting

    They mentioned this and how it can boost the local economy etc. I agree with them

    Too many tourists around my area atm. Spread nthe en yasu wealth

19. What could possibly go wrong

20. Who’s going to pay to fix these places up?

    Who’s going to manage/upkeep the property?

    Most of these are not going to be in convenient locations close to public transportation. How are tourists going to get there? How will they get food, etc? The vast majority of tourists won’t/can’t rent a car in Japan.

21. There’s a reason they’re abandoned. If they were in an area where tourists would be interested to stay, they wouldn’t be abandoned anymore. These houses are not hidden gems. It’s just cheaper to let them deteriorate like this than demolish them.

22. Go ahead Airbnb fill them. I dare you

23. 🖕Air🖕BnB🖕