---
title: "Record Tourists, Short-Staffed Hotels: Japan in Numbers"
description: Japan drew a record 42.68 million visitors in 2025 and 36.6% of their spending went on lodging, yet service jobs had 2.31 openings per applicant in August 2026.
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/inbound-tourism-hotel-labor-shortage-en.png
---

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[Japan by the Numbers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/japan-by-the-numbers)

# Record Tourists, Short-Staffed Hotels: Japan in Numbers

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)

![Bar chart of jobs-to-applicants ratio by occupation: customer service at 2.31, more than double the 1.06 average](https://nobusato.jp/hs-fs/hubfs/inbound-tourism-hotel-labor-shortage-en.png?width=1200&height=630&name=inbound-tourism-hotel-labor-shortage-en.png)

If you plan a hotel business in Japan, price in staffing before anything else. In 2025 a record 42.68 million foreign visitors came, and the biggest slice of their spending went on accommodation. Yet in August 2026, Hello Work had 2.31 openings for every applicant in customer service and serving jobs. That is more than double the national average.

Whether you want to open a hotel, sell software to hotels, or hire into hospitality here, the second number matters more than the first. Here is how the two fit together, and one survey that seems to contradict both.

## Where does the tourist money actually land?

Accommodation is the largest single category of visitor spending in Japan. The Japan Tourism Agency's Consumption Trend Survey for International Visitors puts 2025 spending at ¥9.46 trillion (preliminary), up about 16% from ¥8.13 trillion in 2024. Lodging took ¥3.46 trillion of that, or 36.6%. Shopping came second at 27.0% and food and drink third at 21.9%. Average spend per visitor was about ¥229,000.

Two caveats. The annual figure is still preliminary and may be revised. And it measures what visitors paid, which isn't what hotels kept. Higher room rates do little for a property whose wage and energy bills are rising faster.

The arrivals count comes from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). 2025's 42,683,600 visitors beat the 2024 record of 36.87 million by 15.8%. In 2023 the figure was 25.07 million, so arrivals grew roughly 1.7 times in two years.

2026 is cooling. As of October 2026, JNTO estimates January to September arrivals at 30.73 million, down 2.9% on the same period last year. September alone was down 5.0%, the second monthly fall in a row. Visitors from China dropped 44.5% in September; JNTO points to Beijing's advisory against travel to Japan and fewer flights. South Korea and Taiwan set September records, so this looks to me like a shift in the visitor mix more than a collapse.

## How short of staff are hotel and service jobs?

The government's main measure says very. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's monthly Employment Referrals report for August 2026 shows a jobs-to-applicants ratio of 2.31 for customer service and serving occupations (regular jobs including part-time, unadjusted). That is 74,982 open positions chasing 32,495 job seekers. Across all occupations the ratio is 1.06.

Jobs-to-applicants ratio by occupation, August 2026 (regular incl. part-time, unadjusted)01234All occupations1.06Cleaning1.12Cooking2.21Customer service, serving2.31Care services3.89Source: MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers, August 2026, reference table 6. Hello Work only.

**Fig.1**Customer service and serving jobs had 2.31 openings per applicant in August 2026, more than double the 1.06 average. Cleaning, which includes hotel housekeeping, sat near the average at 1.12. Care services (3.89) are tighter still. Source: MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers, August 2026, reference table 6 (regular incl. part-time, unadjusted).

Know what this number leaves out. It only counts openings and job seekers registered with Hello Work, the public employment service. Anyone who job-hunts through private sites or agencies is invisible. The customer service category also lumps hotel front desks together with restaurant floor staff, so this table has no hotel-only ratio. I went through how these occupation ratios are built in [a piece on Japan's job openings ratio by occupation](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-job-openings-ratio-by-occupation?hsLang=en).

One more detail from the same release. New job openings in the accommodation and food service industry fell 11.1% year on year in August 2026. The ratio is still high, while fresh demand for staff is easing.

## The survey that says hotels feel less short

Teikoku Databank (TDB), a Japanese credit research firm, regularly asks Japanese companies whether they are short of staff. In April 2026, 10,538 answered. Back in January 2023, 81.1% of ryokan and hotel operators said they lacked non-regular staff and 77.8% said they lacked full-time staff. Both were the highest of any industry. By April 2026 the non-regular figure had fallen to 38.5%, the first reading in the 30s since February 2022.

TDB is careful about why. It suggests efficiency gains from digital tools and spot-work apps, plus calmer demand as prices rose and Chinese visitors fell away.

Watch the denominator. TDB reports the share of firms that say they are short. That tells you nothing about how many people they need. The hotel sample is also a small slice of the 10,538 respondents, so one industry can swing a lot. My read is that hotels have adapted. They learned to run with fewer people, and many stopped reporting a gap they now treat as normal. The shortage is still there. The 2.31 ratio shows it.

## Why the fastest-growing sector is short of people

Pay, mostly. In MHLW's 2025 Basic Survey on Wage Structure, full-time workers in accommodation and food services earned ¥277,200 a month in scheduled pay, the lowest of any industry. The all-industry figure was ¥340,600, so hospitality pays about 81% of the average.

Arrivals grew about 70% in two years. Wages in a labor-intensive business can't move that fast. Add shift work, sharp peak seasons and properties far from cities, and growth itself opens the gap. That chain of cause is my own reading. The statistics show the pieces; I'm the one connecting them.

## Foreign workers, automation and pay

Foreign workers are the obvious answer, and so far the numbers are tiny. According to the Immigration Services Agency, at the end of June 2026 (preliminary) there were 2,556 Specified Skilled Worker (i) visa holders in the accommodation field and 57 in the higher (ii) tier. That is under 1% of all 425,961 SSW (i) holders. Care work had 79,884 and food service 49,060 at the same date. The government's five-year intake ceiling for accommodation is 23,000, so the cap isn't what binds. I suspect the bottleneck is on the employer side. Many properties are rural, housing and supporting foreign staff costs money, and front-desk work demands strong Japanese. That is a guess. I haven't seen data that confirms it. The wider picture is in [my numbers piece on foreign workers in Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers?hsLang=en).

Loosening requirements does move hiring. I once spent six months on a limited budget looking for a bilingual IT project manager. When we dropped the native-Japanese requirement, we hired within a month. Hotels could do the same thing by setting the language bar per task instead of per property.

Automation helps at the edges. Self check-in kiosks and serving robots take over some steps. Housekeeping and bed-making still run on human hands. Spot-work apps fill the peak-season gaps.

If I were a foreign company entering Japanese hospitality, I would plan staffing before rooms. Work out how many people you can realistically hire at local pay, and size the opening from there. If you sell to hotels, lead with minutes saved per room. That is the number a general manager with a 2.31 ratio outside the door will listen to.

What I can't tell yet is whether TDB's 38.5% is real progress or a pause caused by fewer Chinese visitors. If arrivals pick up again, the ratio and the sense of shortage could both climb back. Either way, I wouldn't plan a hotel opening on the assumption that 38.5% stays where it is.

Sources

- [JNTO, Visitor Arrivals Statistics: 2025 at 42,683,600 (estimate); Jan to Sep 2026 at 30,730,200](https://www.jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/visitors-statistics/)
- [Travel Voice, report on JNTO's 2025 annual figure (2024: 36.87 million)](https://www.travelvoice.jp/20260121-159116)
- [Travel Voice, report on JNTO's September 2026 estimate (down 5.0%, China down 44.5%)](https://www.travelvoice.jp/20261021-160712)
- [Japan Tourism Agency, April 2026 document: 2025 visitor spending by category (accommodation ¥3.46 trillion, 36.6%, preliminary)](https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/content/001998364.pdf)
- [Honichi Lab, report on JTA's 2025 preliminary: ¥9.46 trillion, ¥228,809 per visitor](https://honichi.com/news/2026/01/21/inbound-consumption-202510-12/)
- [MHLW, Employment Referrals August 2026, reference table 6: customer service and serving 2.31, all occupations 1.06](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11602000/001753011.pdf)
- [MHLW, Employment Referrals August 2026 release: accommodation and food service new openings down 11.1%](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_76397.html)
- [Teikoku Databank, Labor Shortage Survey April 2026: hotels non-regular 38.5%](https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000001341.000043465.html)
- [Travel Voice, report on TDB January 2023: hotels full-time 77.8%, non-regular 81.1%](https://www.travelvoice.jp/20230220-152994)
- [MHLW, 2025 Basic Survey on Wage Structure by industry: accommodation and food services ¥277,200](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/chingin/kouzou/z2025/dl/05.pdf)
- [MHLW, 2025 Basic Survey on Wage Structure summary: all full-time workers ¥340,600](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/chingin/kouzou/z2025/dl/13.pdf)
- [Immigration Services Agency, SSW (i) holders end June 2026 (preliminary): accommodation 2,556, total 425,961](https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001459471.pdf)
- [Immigration Services Agency, SSW (ii) holders end June 2026 (preliminary): accommodation 57](https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001459472.pdf)
- [Immigration Services Agency, SSW accommodation field: five-year intake ceiling 23,000](https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/policies/ssw/accommodation.html)

---

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