Just after 10:15 p.m. in late November, three young women were wandering around a cul-de-sac in a sleepy residential area filled with apartments and detached houses.

Just a five-minute walk took the trio far from the noise in front of JR Oji Station in Tokyo’s Kita Ward.

The three were British tourists who arrived in Japan about a week earlier and had gone sightseeing in Osaka and Tokyo.

Holding up their cellphones and peering into houses on the side of the road, they said in English that they were unsure where their accommodations were located.

When they finally found their destination--a three-story apartment building at the end of a small street--panic set in.

According to the reservation website, check-in should be by 10 p.m., and the three were already late.

Further confounding the tourists was a sign in the area that showed they were not welcome in the neighborhood.

One of the three, who was 18, raised her eyebrow and said they had been put in an “uncomfortable situation.”

But all was not lost.

According to local residents, the “check-in by 10 p.m.” rule is often broken.

The rule-breaking is just one of several complaints about the building, which has enraged residents here.

The accommodation facility, mainly for overseas tourists, was set up in the center of a quiet residential community.

Residents now complain that guests sometimes arrive around 1 a.m., dragging their suitcases and making a rumbling sound that echoes throughout the neighborhood.

At other times, guests hang out in front of the facility around midnight, laughing, chatting and discarding their cigarette butts on the road.

Local children used to play on that private road, but they have stopped showing up.

Several signs have been posted with messages in red, such as, “Absolutely no to private accommodation.”

Some messages in English leave no doubt who they are intended for: “We are dead set against your staying at this vacation rental.”

Kaoru Hatami, 87, who has lived in the area for more than 60 years, said, “The order of the community is collapsing.”

A CHANGE OF PLANS

A one-story house, where an elderly woman lived alone, originally stood on this lot.

The house was demolished when the woman moved out, and construction work began around summer 2023.

Several residents heard from the builder that an apartment building would be erected, and the residents who owned the private road leading to the site allowed construction vehicles to enter and exit.

Within a few months, however, the situation completely changed.

On Nov. 26, a document titled “Notice concerning notification of residential accommodation business” was placed in the mailboxes of residences in the area.

Residents were caught off-guard; they had assumed that an apartment building would be built there.

According to the registry, the building was completed in September 2023 and sold three months later, in December, to a real estate company based in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

The builder told The Asahi Shimbun that the building was constructed for condominiums and was not intended as an accommodation facility.

However, the builder added, “We can’t interfere with how the buyer of the property will use it in the future.”

POST-PANDEMIC DEMAND

After the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, foreign visitors began to return to Japan, and there was an urgent need to improve and add lodging facilities.

According to the Japan Tourism Agency, as of November 2024, there were about 28,000 private residences reportedly used for private accommodations, known as “minpaku,” based on the residential accommodation business law.

The figure was up 30 percent year on year.

It appears the accommodation facility near JR Oji Station followed this trend.

‘SERIOUS MENTAL STRAIN’

In May 2024, the real estate company that bought the property obtained a business license from Kita Ward’s public health center to operate the building as a “simple lodging house” and began operations in July.

Residents in the neighborhood have filed a request with the ward for a review, demanding the license be revoked.

They claim “the living environment has changed drastically, and the mental strain is serious.”

A Kita Ward ordinance obliges businesses that operate lodging facilities to make efforts to inform nearby residents of their business in advance.

The purpose is to build a good relationship with residents.

However, the ordinance does not require business operators to obtain the residents’ “consent.”

An official of the public health center said as long as the requirements are met, the ward has no choice but to issue the business license.

The center, which is located about 1.5 kilometers from the site, has received various complaints about the accommodation facility.

The official said the center has instructed the real estate company to “respond to requests as they come in.”

But the company is under no legal obligation to do so.

“We have to think from the standpoint of both residents and businesses, but there are limits to what (a local government) can do,” the official said.

The operator has not responded to requests from The Asahi Shimbun for an interview.

Hatami, the 87-year-old resident, indicated that people’s feelings were complicated in the area.

“We are not quarreling with the tourists themselves,” Hatami said.

At least one tourist at the facility said she hopes a solution can be reached.

“I would like to get along better with the locals,” the 33-year-old woman from France said.

Many residents expressed their desire for the facility to go “back to a normal apartment building.”

But that does not appear to be happening.

One resident said, “I guess we have to come to terms with our feelings somewhere and accept (it).”