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What are the legal rules to know and the authorizations / Certifications required to open a hostel in Kyoto Japan ?

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GaijinFrance started this discussion 9 years 3 months ago

Hi everybody,
I am french, my wife is japanese and we have a little boy. I can speak reasonably well japanese and english, my wife speaks a basic french and our son is bilingual regarding french and japanese.
We are living and working in France in jobs unrelated to the hostel business but we are planning on going back to Japan (Kyoto) in about 3-5 years and would like to open a small hostel there.

We have a lot of questions to ask and hope people will share their experience with us.

- Does anybody know what specific regulations we must follow ?

- What is the best company form (kabushi kaisha, godo kaisha...) for a hostel business in Japan and why ?

- Do we have to get some form of permission or certification to start a hostel business (with or without a bar) ?

- Is it legal to convert a big house in a hostel ?

- Can a hostel reside in any residential area although it is a business ?

Sorry for all these questions but it is fairly hard to get reliable answers from France and next time we'll be in Japan is on summer 2016.

Thanks in advance,

GaijinFrance

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Rucksack Brian

9 years

Hi GaijinFrance,

Welcome to the Forum!

Sadly I don't know the first thing about opening hostels in Japan, but if you already know the city where you would like to open that will help you in the process. The local Chamber of Commerce (assuming some kind of equivalent exists in Japan) may be able to help with some of the questions that you posted. A phone call or an email might provide some answers, even while you're still in France. Another source of basic information would be a hostel in another city, with whom you could work in the future and for whom you would not appear as a competitor. Even if they can't explain every possible option in detail, at least they can share their own experiences and tell you about their own choices and challenges.

I wish I had more concrete information to offer you. Perhaps as you find the answers to your questions you can post them here.

All the best in your new adventure!

Brian

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