Online accommodation platform Airbnb is looking to bridge the gap between surging demand and supply in Japan, which the company says is its fastest growing market.
Airbnb says the number of guests has grown dramatically by more than 500% this year, while the number of new listings is up 373%.
It now has 21,000 units list in Japan.
"We call it supply constraints. We have many more people who want to come to Japan compared to the number of listings," said Yasuyuki Tanabe, country manager of Airbnb Japan.
Inbound tourism is surging in Japan with the number of tourists arriving in October up 44%, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
Tourism officials believe it could reach 20 million by the end of the year, a target it didn’t expect to reach until 2020, the year Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games.
The weak Japanese yen and easing of visa restrictions has been responsible for the growing appetite for Japan trips, especially with Chinese visitors.
Airbnb still has many regulatory hurdles to bypass in Japan and faces increasing scrutiny from the hotel industry and lawmakers in several Japanese cities.
"Things are moving fast and that itself is a unique challenge for Japan. The high growth rate has created the impetus to start looking into revising these things," said Mike Orgill, director of public policy for Asia Pacific at Airbnb.
