Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb cofounder and chief strategy officer, sat down with The Japan News for an interview in Tokyo on Thursday about his company's activities in Japan, especially in light of a new law that took effect Friday.
Airbnb Inc. has been expanding its operations in Japan. However, few private lodgings had registered with relevant authorities as the new law took effect, and the company has canceled reservations that were not in line with relevant laws and regulations, which has brought about confusion among lodgers.
Blecharczyk nevertheless emphasized his expectations for the long-term potential of the Japanese market. The American entrepreneur said that thousands of hosts are in the process of registering, and that he views the current situation as "an adjustment period." He also pledged the company is doing everything it can to help both guests and hosts.
The following is excerpted from the interview with Airbnb cofounder Nathan Blecharczyk:
The Japan News: What has caused the number of registered private lodging units to be low? Do you think regulations in Japan are too strict for private lodging business operators compared to those in other countries?
Blecharczyk: We've been reaching out to all of our hosts to help them with the process, and what we've heard is that there are thousands of hosts that are in the middle of the process right now. Certainly, comparing the rules to other countries -- every country has different rules -- Japan has some unique things about their rules. I think it is proving challenging for people to get through the process quickly. We're optimistic that in the long term, tens of thousands of our hosts will be successful making it through the process, but it's taking time and I view this as an adjustment period.
Q: The company has canceled reservations that are not in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, which has caused anger and confusion among lodgers.
A: Now that there is home-sharing regulation, it's a shared responsibility between government and operators, including Airbnb, to make those rules work for everyone, and we're doing everything we can to help both our guests and our hosts. So far, we've only canceled reservations that are within 10 days of arrival. This gives our hosts the chance to complete the process. Hopefully, they don't have to cancel, because hopefully, they can successfully register their homes. But if for some reason it takes longer than expected, then we have to give guests the opportunity to cancel, to get their full refund, and also we've put aside 10 million dollars to help further compensate guests so that they can make other plans.
Q: What do you think about the potential for business in Japan? Do you have any plans or ideas on how to increase the number of listings down the road?
A: I think the potential for Japan is very large. First of all at the national level, there are very ambitious goals to grow inbound tourism to 40 million by 2020, when, of course, the Olympics are coming, but so far the number is just 28 million, so in the next two years there's an expectation there'll be an additional 12 million visitors. To accommodate all of those visitors, they simply won't be able to build enough hotels. There's going to need to be a diversity of options. Japan has 8 million vacant homes and that is a wasted asset, so we think there's huge potential for those homes to be used productively to accommodate guests and also for local people to participate in this global tourism industry, particularly older people. We have a lot of seniors on our platform, and they're actually our highest-rated and fastest-growing host demographic. We see a lot of potential long-term because of these unique factors for Japan.
Q: Do you have any specific services in this country?
A: Our local partner ecosystem of 36 companies that we announced [Thursday], we don't have anything like that in other countries. The idea here is to make it easy for ordinary people to get assistance in being hosts. This is a totally unique concept made possible by that fact that we are investing a lot of money over the next 12 months -- 30 million dollars. This is one of the things we're doing uniquely for Japan.
Q: What do you think is the most challenging thing in Japan?
A: The contrast between how Japanese people who have used the product, and those who have not used the product, think about or perceive what Airbnb is. For those who have not actually used it themselves, they have a lot of concerns, about safety and cleanliness and all of those things. For those who have actually used it, they realize, "Oh, our concerns are addressed, this is a really great system." It takes time, it takes trust, but you have to earn that, in Japan and everywhere. But I think Japan in particular is a more conservative culture and so it maybe takes a little longer.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
