Visitors to Hokkaido's Niseko mountain resort will be liable to pay up to 2,000 yen ($14) per night on hotel and "minpaku" private lodging stays under a new accommodation tax scheme approved Tuesday by Japan's internal affairs minister.
The non-statutory tax approved by Takeaki Matsumoto is set to be introduced in the popular ski spot from November. It is expected to generate 162 million yen annually in revenue for the local government, with the funds to be allocated to improving local transportation and other measures to improve tourism.
Visitors will be required to pay between 100 yen to 2,000 yen per night based on their nightly room charge, which is divided into five brackets starting from less than 5,001 yen to 100,000 yen and over per person. School-related trips will be exempt from the tax.
Given the increase in foreign tourists, the town of Niseko had originally planned to introduce a fixed-rate tax that would collect 2 percent of the room charge, but changed strategy in consideration of the administrative burden on operators.
Accommodation taxes have already been introduced in Tokyo as well as Osaka and Fukuoka prefectures, and six municipalities including Kanazawa and Nagasaki, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
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