The new Samurai of nippon hotels

International hotels have set their sights on Tokyo. Four Seasons, Conrad, Mandarin Oriental very recently; Ritz Carlton, Peninsula and Shangri-La in the near future: these brands have set their bags in the Ginza neighborhood, the nerve center of the Japanese capital. These multiple openings have upset the balance between Japanese palaces –New Otani, Okura, Imperial – and properties with North American names —Park Hyatt, Westin and Four Seasons. This new wave of luxury hotels in Tokyo is anything but a surprise: this metamorphosis of the up-market hotel inventory has been fermenting for several years. "With the apparent improvements within the investment climate, Mandarin Oriental intensified its search for a suitable location and viable longterm business venture within Tokyo approximately six years ago," remembers Christian Hassing, the director of the Mandarin Oriental. Out of the game between 1985 and 1990 because of the real estate bubble with its stratospheric prices, then cooled by the bursting of the financial bubble and the weakening of the Nippon economy, today these prestigious groups are taking advantage of an environment that favors their expansion.“As the Japanese hotels generally remained within their tested uniform concepts of providing small simplistic room accommodations with an assortment of restaurants and banquet halls, the arrival of Hyatt International more than a decade ago proved to be very successful with their large guest rooms and innovative western restaurant and bar concepts. However as the economy was at its height during that time in Japan, the domestic hotels took little note of this. In addition, the excessive cost structure associated with business in Japan and lack of transparency during that period prevented other international hotel companies from entering the market till recently. With the increasing arrival of international hotels in Tokyo and their proven success, many of the domestic hotel companies have...