238 Best Hotels in Japan

Indoor and outdoor pools, a rooftop garden, tennis courts, and a sparkling marble atrium make this hotel a popular choice for both Japanese and Western travelers. The modern rooms, large by Japanese standards, afford handsome views of Osaka Castle and the Neya River. Rooms have pale color schemes accented with geometric patterns and Japan-inspired prints. There's a lot here—it's like a city within Osaka Business Park. Spend an evening in the teppanyaki restaurant on the 18th floor enjoying Osaka-jo in all its floodlit glory.

A central location in a bustling complex with restaurants and shopping arcades can make the New Otani feel frantic, but its spectacular, 10-acre Japanese garden can help you find peace. Rooms in the main building feature contemporary Japanese design; those in the Garden Tower overlook ponds and waterfalls. The complex also has a pool and a spa.

This 30-story hotel's exotic lobby is more reminiscent of Singapore than Japan, with tropical plants, cherry-oak slatted doors, and colonial-style furniture. A winding staircase curls around a bubbling pond in the middle of the lobby and leads to a brasserie called Garden House, which serves wonderful coffee and cake. The colorful top-floor lounge, Le Grand Chariot, has panoramic views over Kanazawa, cocktails, and soft piano music. Guest rooms begin at the 17th floor, and the Western-style ones are decorated with creamy pastels and blond-wood furnishings and have striking views of the sea, city, or mountains. An underground passageway connects the hotel to the JR Station.

The city's largest hotel provides plenty of creature comforts in rooms with thick carpets and large windows that let in lots of light. Given its location next to Nara JR Station, the rooms are remarkably quiet. All have private baths, and there's a communal bath as well. Close to downtown restaurants, the hotel sits atop a popular shopping arcade. The lobby is on the third floor, where you can also find a lounge offering free drinks including wine and sake.

A striking white tower in the colorful Shin-sai-bashi district, the Nikko is within easy reach of shopping meccas like Amerika-mura. What you pay depends on the amenities, as the twin and double rooms are all the same size. For a little more comfort, opt for a room on one of the L floors for a couple of thousand yen extra. Black-and-white photographs of Mido-suji-dori ornament the walls. 

Traditional and contemporary elements come together to make the Niwa Tokyo a prized little boutique hotel in the middle of the city. A small rock pond and massive paper lantern in the high-ceiling lobby welcome guests. Rooms are small (starting at 60 square feet) yet contain charming Japanese touches, such as shoji screens and carpeting made to look like tatami. The property is within minutes of Tokyo Dome, so catching the Giants during the baseball season is a snap.

Rising 35 stories over Meriken Park, this is one of the city's best lodgings. Beautifully furnished, the hotel lives up to the Okura chain's reputation for excellence. Rooms were designed by David Hicks, who has also done interiors for the British royal family. The hotel has a well-equipped health club and stunning views of the bay from the beautiful Sazanka Teppanyaki Restaurant on the 35th floor.

This hotel is an oasis on the coast of Motobu located next to Ocean Expo Park and the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. With gorgeous views out toward Ie Island and doorstep access to Emerald Beach, it is perfect for a romantic getaway or a family vacation. Use the hotel as a convenient base to also check out Bise Village, Kouri Island, and the northern coastline up to Cape Hedo. Decor is stylish with muted natural tones. All rooms are spacious with ocean views. Most guests arrive by rental car, but the hotel has timetables and discounted tickets for the Yanbaru Express bus to the airport.

From the outside, you might think you've booked a drab business hotel, but inside everything is surprisingly smart. Better yet, it's literally next door to the main building at Dogo Onsen, so you couldn't ask for better access to the city's famous hot-spring baths. "Standard doubles" might feel a bit too snug, but the "deluxe twins" are unusually spacious for Japan. The sushi restaurant on the first floor also serves good Japanese breakfast sets.

What puts Peace Island Miyakojima a cut above the rest are the amenities: all the rooms have their own washing machine, refrigerator, and microwave. It's filled with simple, functional rooms. It's particularly popular with scuba divers and families. In the center of Hirara, the Peace Island puts you within walking distance of the bars and restaurants.

With its excellent staff, comfortable rooms, and award-winning breakfasts, Hotel Piena is a step above other midrange business hotels in downtown Kobe. Just a short stroll from the fashionable Kitano area, Sannomiya Station, and Shin-Kobe Station, the hotel is a good base for exploring the city and surrounding area. While the rooms are smaller than those of higher end hotels, they are elegant, comfortable, and good for travelers who plan to spend most of the day out sightseeing. The hotel staff are friendly and helpful, happy to give advice about sights in the surrounding area. With its central location, affordable price point, good food, and excellent service, Hotel Piena is one of the best all-around values in the city.

Situated one block north of JR Gifu Station, this conveniently located hotel comes with larger-than-average Western-style rooms. Request an upper floor room facing Gifu Park for an excellent outlook toward Gifu Castle and the Nagara River. 

The main selling point of this functional business hotel is its location right next to the Kushiro train station. As with most business hotels, the rooms are sparse and small but clean. There is a free breakfast, but it can get crowded. The hotel's public bath is gender-separated and is an excellent place to thaw out in winter. 

You couldn't ask for a more convenient in-town lodging than this elegant, nicely furnished hotel. Just north of the Makishi monorail station—where Kokusai Street gets quieter—the nine floors of sturdy accommodations are the perfect place to spend a night on your way through Naha. Standard twin rooms have cozy semi-double beds with rather bland decor; deluxe rooms have opulent bathrooms and big desks.

One of the most affordable hotels near Tokyo Station (a mere three-minute walk away), the Ryumeikan is a great option for business travelers or those making side trips outside the city. Don't be put off by the drab elevator up to the 15th-floor lobby; things are far smarter elsewhere. Guest rooms have cream-colored walls and dark-brown textiles, and bathrooms feature showers outfitted with a special massage function. Small (188 square feet) single rooms are simply designed, with a curved desk and ergonomic office chair. The hotel's restaurant, Hanagoyomi, serves good Japanese dishes. Bicycle rentals are possible.

Smart but affordable, this hotel offers great city access—it's across from the JR Station—and a good range of facilities and amenities. Rooms are simple in design, but doubles are spacious, with queen-size beds, and the corner twins are huge by local standards. The top-floor natural hot-spring bath will soothe and rejuvenate you after a day on your feet.

Located a few minutes from the shops and nightlife of Okaido, the Hotel Vista is a cut above a standard business hotel. While the basic rooms are fairly compact, "moderate twins" and "superior twins" are very spacious by local standards. All rooms feature contemporary (if a little uninspiring) interiors, as does the coworking space, where you can grab free soft drinks. For wheelchair users, there's a "universal twin" available.

Aimed at no-nonsense business travelers, this spartan hotel provides simple, functional rooms, fast Wi-Fi, and fair prices. The hotel is a two-minute walk from Nagasaki Station, across the pedestrian bridge on the narrow road past the FamilyMart convenience store.

Opened in 2021, this bright and airy hotel next to Inuyama Station offers simple, but smart Western-style rooms. Where it stands out is with its activities geared toward travelers after cultural experiences. On-site, the hotel runs tea ceremonies, sweets-making classes, and ceramic painting workshops for both guests and nonguests. It also offers history walks of Inuyama's old town and can arrange ukai tickets. 

Situated in the heart of Ginza, this hotel is a chic place to unwind after a day of shopping and before a night on the town. Rooms range from spacious king-bed doubles and twins to sprawling suites; all are sleekly designed and have nice touches like Nespresso machines, eco-friendly Bee Kind bath products, and 50-inch wall-mounted TVs. Although the Centric keeps things minimal in terms of communal hotel facilities, it does have a bar, restaurant, gym, and laidback lobby lounge.

Opened next to Kanazawa Station in 2020, the Hyatt Centric delivers stylish rooms and common areas, but with deliberately trimmed back facilities in an attempt to keep fees down. The rooms and suites are all spacious, combining natural tones and natural lighting with the occasional bold motif and modern amenities. There's a chic rooftop bar, plus a café and grill that serves a Western-style buffet breakfast. Unlike some of Kanazawa's older accommodations, the Centric also has an accessible room available. Next door you'll find another new property, Hyatt House, better geared toward longer stays and families.

The Hyatt is elegant but without a stratospheric price tag. It is located beside the quiet Tsuboya pottery district, which provides quick access to busy Kokusai Street. There's a great view of the city from Milano, the Italian restaurant on the 18th floor. Along with a sports gym, there's a rooftop pool surrounded by loungers, and a shallow kids' pool. Some of the suite rooms even have double beds—a rarity in Japan where twin rooms are the norm. The lounge area is quiet and relaxing, a great retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Snuggled amid the skyscrapers of Shinjuku, this hotel has Hyatt's trademark, atrium-style lobby—seven stories high, with glass elevators soaring upward—and as well as rooms that are spacious rooms, if somewhat unremarkable in design. Splurge for the club access deluxe rooms, which include breakfast, tea service, and other perks to go with your even-more-spacious room. Tocho-mae Station, beneath the hotel, allows swift access to the nightlife in Roppongi and Shiodome's business towers, but it's quite deep, so you might find that Shinjuku Station is an easier connector. The nearby park is great for a jog or a stroll and for watching people walk their dogs.

Though not as fashionable or modern as its neighbor the Peninsula, when it comes to traditional elegance, it's hard to top the venerable Imperial, which opened in 1890 and has always been justly proud of its Western-style facilities and personalized Japanese service. Located in the heart of central Tokyo, between the Imperial Palace and Ginza, the hotel has its finest rooms on the 30th floor of the tower, providing views of the palace grounds. In general, rooms—complete with walk-in closets—range from standard singles (344 square feet) to suites that are larger than many homes. Since some Tower rooms are just above the JR train lines, a room closer to Hibiya Park might be a little more pleasing. Dining options are varied and superb, including the award-winning Les Saisons, which is one of Tokyo's finest French restaurants. The Old Imperial Bar incorporates elements from the 1923 version of the hotel, which Frank Lloyd Wright designed, and the Toko-An teahouse offers traditional tea ceremonies.

Owned by a diver–wildlife photographer (iruka means dolphin), this well-kept guesthouse sits by the water in Utoro. Vast fish dinners are served in the bright, modern dining room and on the wooden deck overlooking the Okhotsk Sea. Yamamoto-san speaks some English and is qualified to take guests diving under the ice floes in winter. From the small tatami rooms at dusk, keep an eye out for local foxes that curl up on the hoods of the still-warm cars in the parking lot. As you arrive into town from Abashiri, take the first left after coming out of the tunnel, and the bright-yellow hotel will be the last building on the right (with the dolphin on it) before the road curves to the left. They also have a separate two-bedroom house for rent (June to October only) on the mountain side of town.

Situated in a tower of the glistening Azabudai Hills complex, the Janu is one of the newest and swankiest luxury hotels in Tokyo. This Aman Group hotel, designed by Jean-Michel Gathy, has guestrooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, private balconies, and sleek natural-tone interiors that blend Asian and contemporary Western aesthetics. To that you can add eight highly rated bars and restaurants, plus one of the city's finest spas and wellness centers.

If you're inclined to indulge in Western-style comfort, this hotel next to Takamatsu Station is a good choice. The decor is pleasant if no great shakes—the city views are the selling point at Takamatsu's tallest hotel. The corner rooms on the upper floors have sweeping views of the Inland Sea. The Clement also comes with a reputation for attentive service.

Located right next to the station and directly accessible, this business hotel, a delight for trainspotters, is the most convenient accommodation in the city. Rooms are modern with subtle locomotive-themed decor. From the 12th-floor onsen you can soak while watching the trains pull in and out of the station. Also on the 12th floor is a small lounge with free coffee, books on Japan's train network, and great views across the city and ocean. At the "Pillow Corner" in the lobby, guests can select from 12 different types of pillow.

"Fit for a king" is often an exaggeration, but in this case it's true—Jyoseikan is where the emperor and empress once stayed. A monumental, somewhat dated exterior gives way to a grand interior with spacious Japanese-style rooms, exquisite tatami suites, and a sauna and bath with wonderful views of the city and the castle. There are pleasant Western-style twins available, but they don't come close to the traditional Japanese rooms in either the main building or new annex. No-meal or limited-meal plans are possible too, if you want to keep the price more affordable, but most rates include breakfast and a refined kaiseki or French dinner. It's seven stops west of Harimaya Bridge by tram. 

Although this hostel is best known as a backpacker getaway, the modern architecture, smart facilities, multilingual staff, and central location make it a great find, as do the two cheap double rooms with ensuite baths. The rooms are a good value for those who have low budgets but still want perks like free Wi-Fi, plentiful computer terminals, and a lovely courtyard. K's House is located north of Shichijo-dori and west of the Takase River.