①A person seeking to run a hotel business must be licensed by the prefectural governor (or by the mayor of the city, in a city with a health center; or by the mayor of the ward, in a special ward; the same applies hereinafter except for in paragraph (4)); provided, however, that this does not apply if a person licensed for the business of operating an inn or hotel or the business of operating a common lodging house seeks to be in the business of operating a boarding house within the relevant facility.

②When a person has applied for licensing as referred to in the preceding paragraph, it is permissible for the prefectural governor not to grant the licensing referred to in that paragraph on finding that the structure, equipment, or furnishings of the facility to which the application pertains do not conform to the standards that Cabinet Order prescribes, on finding that the location of the facility is inappropriate from a public health standpoint, or if the applicant falls under one of the following items:

③The preceding paragraph also applies if the facility to which a licensing application as referred to in paragraph (1) pertains would be located within roughly 100 meters of the grounds of one of the following institutions (this includes land that it has been decided will be used for such an institution; the same applies hereinafter) and the prefectural governor finds that locating the facility there would risk significantly marring the innocent institutional environment of the relevant institution:

④Before granting licensing as referred to in paragraph (1) in connection with a facility that would be located within roughly 100 meters of the grounds of an institution as set forth in one of the items of the preceding paragraph, the prefectural governor (or the mayor of the city, in a city with a health center; or the mayor of the ward, in a special ward) must first seek the opinion of the relevant person as to whether locating the facility there would risk significantly marring the innocent institutional environment of the institution set forth in one of the items of the preceding paragraph; if the institution in question is a school (meaning an Article 1 school or certified pre-school/daycare center; hereinafter the same applies in this paragraph) and that school is a national school (meaning a school run by the national government (including a national university corporation as prescribed in Article 2, paragraph (1) of the National University Corporation Act (Act No. 112 of 2003); hereinafter the same applies in this paragraph)) affiliated with a university or is run by an incorporated municipal university as prescribed in Article 68, paragraph (1) of the Local Incorporated Administrative Agencies Act (Act No. 118 of 2003) (hereinafter referred to as an "incorporated municipal university" in this paragraph), this means seeking the opinion of the president of the relevant university; if the school is a college of technology, this means seeking the opinion of its principal; if the school is a public school other than a college of technology, this means seeking the opinion of the board of education of the local government running the school (or of the head of the local government, if it is a certified pre-school/daycare center); if the school is a private school other than a college of technology or certified pre-school/daycare center, this means seeking the opinion of its administering agency as provided in the School Education Act; and if the school is a certified pre-school/daycare center run by a person other than the national or local government (including by an incorporated municipal university), this means seeking the opinion of the prefectural governor (in a designated city as referred to in Article 252-19, paragraph (1) of the Local Autonomy Act (Act No. 67 of 1947) (hereinafter referred to as "designated city" in this paragraph) this means seeking the opinion of the mayor of the designated city; and in a core city as referred to in Article 252-22, paragraph (1) of that Act (hereinafter referred to as a "core city" in this paragraph), this means seeking the opinion of the mayor of the core city); if the institution in question is a child welfare institution, this means seeking the opinion of the administrative authority prescribed in Article 46 of the Child Welfare Act; and if the institution in question is one that is provided for by prefectural ordinance pursuant to the provisions of item (iii) of the preceding paragraph, this means seeking the opinion of the person provided for in the relevant ordinance.

⑤If not granting the licensing referred to in paragraph (1) pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) or (3), the prefectural governor must notify the applicant of this through a document that gives the reason therefor.

⑥It is permissible to attach the conditions that are necessary from a public health standpoint or from the perspective of upholding public policy to the licensing referred to in paragraph (1).