Japan¡¯s new law on short-term lodging services was meant to ease a shortage of hotel rooms, bring order to an unregulated market, and offer more options for foreign visitors ahead of next year¡¯s Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Instead, the law is likely to stifle Airbnb Inc. when it is enacted in June, along with other businesses based on vacation-rental websites, and force many homeowners to stop offering their services, renters and experts say.
The law on minpaku (private lodging services), the first national legal framework for short-term room rentals in Asia, limits provision of the services to 180 days a year ¡ª a cap some hosts say makes it difficult to turn a profit.
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