Japan has not escaped the recent economic recession around the world. But despite the financial doldrums, a few industries have emerged unscathed. One of these is the love hotel industry, which pulls in an estimated USD 40 billion in annual revenues, more than twice that of the anime industry. Japan’s 25,000 love hotels, which provide intimate venues for lovers in a country short on privacy and space, pull in more than 400 million customers per year and show no signs of slowing down even in these times of trouble.

The love hotel got its start back after World War II, when Allied occupational forces created a demand, and tea rooms acted as fronts for prostitution activities. The industry got a boost when legal prostitution was banned, forcing the business underground. Although any hotel can be used for intimate purposes, love hotels adds a layer of privacy and convenience, providing hourly rates, garages, interactive panels,  and walls thicker than the usual half-inch plywood to allow couples to undergo the entire process without coming into contact with anyone else.

Love hotels come in three prices. The first is for a “rest”, which is priced for an hour. Next comes the more expensive “overnight stay”, which starts at 9 or 10 pm. The third price is “Free Time” or “Service Time”, which is heavily discounted and offered during the day. Free time is like an all-you-can-love offer for a fixed price.

And as the concept of love hotels spread across the world, reaching Central and South America, no one has pushed the concept further than in Japan, where rooms are decorated to almost all conceivable fetish. Hello! Kitty (in bondage gear), high school classrooms, underwater rooms, “basket chair” rooms, UFO room, even Star Wars are motifs present. What’s more, state-of-the-art electronic systems like karaoke, nig-screen TVs, game consoles, jacuzzis and saunas are available in the premium hotels, to make the stay even more enjoyable. Many hotels have tanning beds and slot machines, and are also known to give out complimentary clocks or pajamas to repeat customers.

There are alarming reports that an upscale trend has been sweeping across the love hotels in the country, and in the effort to clean up their sleazy image, many have done away with the bumper cars and disco lights of yester-years. This clean-up is largely enforced by the government, which is embarrassed when foreign media portray the country as a land of subway perverts and school-girl kinks. Moreover, it is also common in recent years for the woman to invite her man to a hotel, and operators have responded by designing rooms to appeal to office ladies and female college students.

Osaka is the undisputed king of love hotels, with the best districts being in Namba, Umeda, Sakuranomiya and Ikuteramachi. Gang Snowman is Kansai’s wildest love hotel, with the strangest rooms you can think of, including 3 “soft SM” rooms and a rooftop garden equipped with a 70’s Cadillac that converts into a bed. Tokyo has more subtle love hotels, with the best located along  Shibuya’s Love Hotel Hill (Dogenzaka). Even tourists can make use of love hotels without intimate pleasure in mind. Since most establishments will accept single guests, they are a potential source of affordable accommodation (though most may draw a line at same-sex couples.) To find the nearest one, check out the billboards: names like “Happy Mickey Cookie” are easy to see. It’s even easier to check in, as the whole system works like a vending machine.

Posted in Attractions, Japan

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