The purpose of this Act is to achieve sound development in the hotel business and facilitate the provision of services to meet the increasingly sophisticated and diverse demands of users in the hotel industry by such means as ensuring the appropriate management of services in the hotel business, and to thereby contribute to improving public health and the lives of the people.

①The term "hotel business" as used in this Act means the business of operating an inn or hotel, the business of operating a common lodging house, or the business of operating a boarding house.

②The term "the business of operating an inn or hotel" as used in this Act means the business of running a facility, receiving lodging fees, and allowing people to lodge there, other than the business of operating a common lodging house or the business of operating a boarding house.

③The term "the business of operating a common lodging house" as used in this Act means the business of running a facility mainly consisting of communal lodging spaces and equipment or furnishings shared by many people, receiving lodging fees, and allowing people to lodge there, other than the business of operating a boarding house.

④The term "the business of operating a boarding house" as used in this Act means the business of running a facility, receiving lodging fees in increments of at least one month, and allowing people to lodge there.

⑤The term "to lodge" as used in this Act means to make use of bedding when using a facility as referred to in one of the preceding paragraphs.

⑥The term "specified infectious disease" as used in this Act means the following infectious diseases:

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).

①If a person licensed as referred to in paragraph (1) of the preceding Article to run a hotel business (hereinafter referred to as a "hotelier") transfers that hotel business, and the transferor and the transferee have obtained the approval of the prefectural governor for the transfer and the acquisition, the transferee succeeds to the status of hotelier.

②The provisions of paragraph (2) of the preceding Article (limited to parts relating to the applicant) and paragraph (3) through paragraph (6) of that Article apply mutatis mutandis to the approval referred to in the preceding paragraph. In such a case, the term "the applicant" in paragraph (2) of that Article is deemed to be replaced with "the transferee".

①If a corporation that constitutes a hotelier undergoes a merger (other than a merger between a corporation constituting a hotelier and a corporation not constituting a hotelier which the corporation constituting a hotelier survives) or a corporate split (but only one in which it has another person succeed to its hotel business), and the merger or split has been approved by the prefectural governor, the corporation surviving the merger, the corporation incorporated in the merger, or the corporation succeeding to the hotel business in the split succeeds to the status of hotelier.

②The provisions of Article 3, paragraph (2) (limited to parts relating to the applicant) and paragraph (3) through paragraph (6) of that Article apply mutatis mutandis to the approval referred to in the preceding paragraph. In such a case, the term "the applicant" in paragraph (2) of that Article is deemed to be replaced with "the corporation surviving the merger, the corporation incorporated in the merger, or the corporation succeeding to the hotel business in the split".

①If a hotelier has died and the heir (or the person selected at the unanimous consent of all heirs as the heir that will succeed to the hotel business, if there are two or more heirs; the same applies hereinafter) seeks to continue to run the hotel business that the decedent ran, the heir must apply to the prefectural governor within sixty days of the decedent's death and obtain the approval of the prefectural governor.

②If an heir applies for the approval referred to in the preceding paragraph, the Article 3, paragraph (1) licensing of the decedent is deemed to be conferred on the heir from the day of the decedent's death until either the day the heir is approved or the day the heir is notified that approval will not be granted.

③The provisions of Article 3, paragraph (2) (limited to the part relating to the applicant) and paragraphs (3) through (6) of that Article apply mutatis mutandis to the approval referred to in paragraph (1).

④An heir who has obtained the approval referred to in paragraph (1) succeeds to the status that the decedent held as a hotelier.

①In view of the importance of the role of the hotel business in the lives of the people, hoteliers must endeavor to maintain and improve safety and sanitation standards in hotel business facilities and services related to allowing persons to lodge, as well as endeavoring to improve the condition of hotel business facilities and enhance services related to allowing persons to lodge so that they are able to meet the increasingly sophisticated and diverse demands of users in the hotel industry.

②Hoteliers must endeavor to give their workers opportunities for the necessary training in order to appropriately take the measures necessary for preventing the spread of specified infectious diseases in hotel business facilities, and to provide elderly persons, persons with disabilities, and other lodgers requiring special consideration with appropriate services related to allowing them to lodge, suited to their characteristics.

①A hotelier must take the necessary measures for the ventilation, natural lighting, artificial lighting, dampness prevention, and cleanliness of its hotel business facilities and take other necessary measures for the health of persons lodging there.

②Prefectures prescribe the standards for the measures referred to in the preceding paragraph by Prefectural Ordinance.

③Beyond the things that are prescribed in paragraph (1), a hotelier must comply with the standards that Cabinet Order prescribes regarding allowing persons to use hotel business facilities.