Nope, individuals can often quite legally rent out their apartments in situations where a company could not. See eg. http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/

Nope, individuals can often quite legally rent out their apartments in situations where a company could not. See eg. http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/27065/are-short-term-rentals-airbnb-etc-legal-in-singapore http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/27065/are-short-te... for the complexities of the situation in Singapore, and I gather Japan is very similar.