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MinpakuX
日本語

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The story

What is a minpaku?

In short

A minpaku (民泊) is a stay in someone's home: a house people live in, or have looked after for years, opened to travellers. A minshuku (民宿) is a family-run inn, the kind that grew up in Japan's fishing, farming and mountain villages. Both put you inside Japanese life, not beside it.

Since 15 June 2018, "minpaku" is also a legal term: a home registered with its prefecture may host travellers for up to 180 nights a year. Minshuku and inns hold an inn licence (旅館業) and can open every night.

Eight stations on the road

  1. Medieval to Edo

    A roof and a fire.

    Travellers carried their own rice and paid only for the firewood to cook it. Kichin in kichin-yado means firewood money.1

  2. 1601

    The road of stations.

    Post stations were set up along the Tōkaidō between Edo and Kyoto. Each kept horses and porters and handed loads on to the next. Lords stayed at honjin; most travellers at hatago.2

  3. Edo

    A house full of travellers.

    At Tamaya in Seki-juku, most rooms were shared, and the boards of travelling groups hung above the foot of the stairs. Up to 200 people could stay at once.3

  4. Edo

    The pilgrims' hosts.

    In Ise, oshi families received pilgrims from across Japan in their own houses and saw to their beds and their prayers. At the peak there were about 800 such houses.4

  5. 1804

    A sign at the door.

    Gensuke, a clerk from Tamatsukuri in Osaka, travelled Japan selling goods and set out to gather inns that anyone could stay at safely. Member inns hung the guild's sign, and printed books listed them by highway. The guild, later named Naniwa-kō, still appeared on a map in 1879.5,6,7

    Minpaku X is built on that idea.

  6. 1937

    The guide's house.

    In Hosono, now Hakuba, sixteen mountain guides' houses were permitted to lodge climbers. It is counted as the start of the minshuku.8

  7. From about 1960

    Rooms by the sea and the snow.

    Farming and fishing families opened rooms to skiers and swimmers, and the minshuku spread along Japan's coasts and into its mountains.9

  8. 2026

    Today.

    On 15 September 2026, 43,037 homes across Japan were registered to host travellers. Minpaku X chooses its houses from these homes, and from the minshuku and small inns, one by one.10,11

Why it isn't a hotel

Not a better hotel. A different night.

  • A person, not a front desk. Someone who knows where to eat tonight.
  • A house, not a room number. A kitchen, a tatami room, a tree in the garden.
  • A neighbourhood, not a lobby. Your morning walk is someone's way to work.
  • A season, as the house knows it. Plum in February, rice in September, snow on the eaves.

What Minpaku X is

Minpaku X is a Japanese company that joins these houses up again. We choose them one by one, give each its own seal, bring travellers who go from house to house, and run the work behind every stay, so the people who keep these houses can go on welcoming travellers.

Find a houseThe Minpaku Pass

Sources

Read on 3 November 2026.

On this page

  1. 1東海道Q&AMLIT Kantō Regional Development Bureau, Yokohama National Highway Office. Kichin-yado: rice carried, a firewood charge.
  2. 2多言語解説シート（東海道）Shinagawa City. 1601: the Tōkaidō post stations; honjin and hatago.観光庁 多言語解説文DB: The Highway and Post-Town System
  3. 3関宿旅籠玉屋歴史資料館（R5-00630）Japan Tourism Agency, multilingual commentary database. Shared rooms, the travelling groups' boards, up to 200 people.
  4. 4伊勢の御師（資料）Mie University Library. Oshi received pilgrims at home; about 800 houses at the peak.伊勢市立図書館「御師」
  5. 5小展示「近世大坂の旅」（2008）Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library. 1804: the inns' guild later called Naniwa-kō, its sign and its books.国立国会図書館サーチ『浪花講定宿帳』
  6. 6浪花講諸国定宿図会Tokyo Museum Collection. A printed guide to the guild's inns.
  7. 7研究紀要（郵政博物館）Postal Museum Japan. Naniwa-kō as a forerunner of inn associations.
  8. 8日本民宿発祥の地 細野（H30-00614）Japan Tourism Agency, multilingual commentary database. 1937: sixteen guides' houses in Hosono, the start of the minshuku.日本語版
  9. 9石井英也「白馬村における民宿地域の形成」『人文地理』29(1), 1977The Human Geographical Society of Japan, via J-STAGE. Minshuku as farm and fishing side work, spreading from about 1960.
  10. 10住宅宿泊事業法に基づく届出及び登録の状況一覧（令和8年9月15日時点）Japan Tourism Agency. 43,037 registered homes on 15 September 2026.
  11. 11民泊制度ポータルサイトJapan Tourism Agency. The home-sharing law, in force on 15 June 2018; 180 nights a year.トラベルボイス（2018年6月15日）

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