Osaka Prefecture's Accommodation Tax: 200 to 500 Yen a Night Since September 2025, and How It's Worked Out

If you stay overnight anywhere in Osaka Prefecture, including Osaka (Osaka), your hotel may add a small line to your bill: Accommodation Tax (宿泊税, shukuhaku zei). Osaka Prefecture has charged it since January 1, 2017, and on September 1, 2025 it raised the rates and lowered the price at which the tax starts. It's charged per person, per night, and the amount depends on the room charge. This guide shows the current rates, how the "per person" charge is worked out, and what does and doesn't count, using Osaka Prefecture's official pages.

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The rates

• Where: hotels, ryokan, simple lodgings (such as hostels), and private lodgings (minpaku, including those under Osaka's special-zone rules) anywhere in Osaka Prefecture.
• When the new rates apply: to nights from September 1, 2025, regardless of the date you booked or paid.
• Who: the guest pays; the accommodation collects it with the room charge and pays it to the prefecture.

How it's worked out for a shared room

The tax is per person, so for a room priced per room, the room charge is divided by the number of guests. Osaka Prefecture's Q&A for accommodation operators gives this example:

What counts as the room charge

• Counts: the room-only price and its service charge, and compulsory fees such as cleaning fees at private lodgings, bedding, bath or nightwear charges.
• Doesn't count: consumption tax and other taxes (including the bath tax at hot springs), meals and entertainment, meeting rooms, and things the accommodation pays for you (taxi, phone, laundry, souvenirs), and any tip you choose to give.
• Meals in the price: if a plan includes dinner or breakfast, the meal portion is taken out first. A free breakfast is treated as having no meal price.
• Discounts: if the accommodation itself gives you a discount, the tax is based on what you actually pay. If a third party pays part of the price (for example, a subsidy), that part is added back.
• Booking fees: a booking site's or travel agent's fee is included only if the accommodation treats it as part of the room charge.

Who doesn't pay

• Guests whose room charge is under 5,000 yen per person per night.
• Students on school trips and other school events (from kindergartens and nursery schools through high schools and similar schools in Japan's system), and the teachers with them, since April 1, 2025. School club trips don't count.
• Diplomats traveling on duty, under international agreements.

How you pay

You pay the tax to the accommodation, together with the room charge. The prefecture asks accommodations to show the tax by name and amount on receipts, in English as "Accommodation Tax". If you prepaid on a booking site, check whether the tax was included; if not, the accommodation will ask for it at check-in or check-out. Osaka Prefecture says the money is used for tourism, such as Wi-Fi at tourist spots, Western-style toilets, and promoting Osaka Prefecture.

Quick checklist

1. Work out your room charge per person, per night, without meals or tax.
2. Find the band: under 5,000 yen (none), 200, 400 or 500 yen.
3. Multiply by people and nights.
4. Check your booking to see whether it's already included.

Going on to Kyoto (Kyoto)? Kyoto City (Kyoto) has its own tax, which rose sharply in March 2026: see the accommodation tax in Kyoto (Kyoto). Japan's other travel charges are explained in the 3,000 yen departure tax and the Miyajima Visitor Tax. More about the city on our Osaka (Osaka) destination page.

Last reviewed: October 4, 2026. Tax rates can change. Please check Osaka Prefecture's pages below.

References

• Osaka Prefecture: The accommodation tax (Japanese)
• Osaka Prefecture: Accommodation tax rates and exemptions (Japanese)
• Osaka Prefecture: Q&A on the room charge and calculating the tax (Japanese)