He Left Tokyo to Open a Guest House and Revive His Hometown in Rural Japan

This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with Koyo Murata, 25, the founder and operator of the Villa ASO visitor home in Taiki, Mie Prefecture, Japan. His phrases have been edited for size and readability.

I grew up in a quintessential countryside town in Japan with about 8,000 folks. My elementary and center colleges had solely about 100 college students mixed. There are even fewer kids there now.

After faculty, we might play within the river or set up soccer matches within the park. I felt fortunate to be surrounded by rivers, mountains, and the ocean.

Trying again, I understand my hometown, Taiki, was already a part of a broader pattern in Japan.

Rural cities prefer it are disappearing as folks move to Tokyo. The capital is the place you discover the most effective jobs. Most youngsters who develop up in small cities like mine dream of creating it to the massive metropolis.

I bought to reside that dream

I moved away at 19 to review electrical engineering at Mie College; after graduating, I spent three years in Tokyo working in development administration and later in impartial gross sales.

My life was full, however I did not like how crowded town could possibly be. The larger Tokyo metropolitan space consists of practically 37 million folks. The trains had been all the time packed, and folks appeared extra uptight than the pleasant of us again dwelling. Over time, I started to comprehend how precious life in the countryside actually was.

That is why, in August 2025, I made a decision to maneuver again dwelling. In Japan, we name it a “U-Flip” — when somebody leaves for town and later returns to their hometown.

My mother and father and older brother now live in Tokyo and run their very own companies. I needed to problem myself by constructing a profession of my very own. On the similar time, I needed to discover a strategy to share the fantastic thing about the Mie countryside with the remainder of the world.

The chance got here when my mother and father referred to as me at some point to inform me that an deserted neighborhood heart in our city was about to be knocked down.

My father stated, “This could possibly be your probability to do one thing with it.”

That is after I made my U-Flip and moved again to Taiki to start my own business and discover a new use for the previous constructing. I started a challenge to rework the previous neighborhood heart into Villa ASO, a visitor home for guests to the world.

Reviving the previous

The previous neighborhood heart was a gathering place for native residents and likewise served as an evacuation meeting level. Nevertheless it had been sitting unused for 10 years.

Once I began my firm, NexusTown, my thought was to renovate the constructing and switch it right into a visitor home that would accommodate teams of as much as 8 folks. I hope to deliver extra tourism to our shrinking town.

I borrowed about 10 million yen, or $62,000, from my brother’s firm and obtained one other 10 million by way of a government-backed startup mortgage from the Japan Finance Company.

Over three months, we employed a development firm to finish 70% of the work, however the the rest was DIY — simply me and a few associates. It was laborious work; none of us had any expertise in renovation. I additionally needed to educate myself the way to market the guest house, the way to put it on Airbnb and Reserving.com, and the way to set the precise costs.

In December, when it formally opened, and I noticed our first visitors get pleasure from their keep, I used to be glad I had accomplished it.

Making it a hit

In January, we had been working at 30%, in February 60%, and by March we might reached 100%.

Our visitors have included school college students on spring break, multigenerational families, and dealing adults from everywhere in the nation. To date, we have had just one group of inbound vacationers from overseas, however I hope we will host extra abroad guests sooner or later. The home is near the Kumano Kodo, an historical pilgrimage route that pulls hikers and vacationers from world wide.

Individuals who come to Villa ASO get to get pleasure from the identical mountains, river, and sea that I did after I was rising up. They’ll decelerate and benefit from the stars at night time. They’ll meet the nice and cozy folks of Mie.

Along with the villa’s non-public sauna, there’s additionally a pure onsen, or sizzling spring, three minutes away by foot that I all the time advocate and which visitors can go to without cost.

The villa prices on common 28,900 to 33,700 Japanese yen, or $179 to $208, for 2 visitors, with 5,000 yen added for extra occasion members.

Sooner or later, I am hoping to attach the villa expertise with native eating places and actions like seated meditation and harbor fishing.

My objective is to revitalize the city’s economic system, and my work isn’t accomplished. Together with managing the guest house, I additionally work for a talent-matching company. I am all the time pondering of latest methods to renovate and enhance the villa. I hope to recoup the funding in about three to 4 years.

The way forward for small-town Japan

The declining population of Taiki worries me. I do not assume the city will ever vanish totally, however it could ultimately be merged with one other township. It makes me unhappy to assume that would occur to the place the place I used to be born.

If this challenge will help even one or two extra folks fall in love with my hometown, I will be blissful.