Forbes Travel Guide 2026
In its 2026 list, Forbes Travel Guide gave 15 hotels in Japan five stars and 25 four stars. Below are the ones written up in English on STAYLOG, each with guests’ stay reports and room-tour videos.
Source: Forbes Travel Guide. The stars are Forbes Travel Guide’s decision, not ours.
ハレクラニ沖縄
A resort on the coast at Onna, on the west side of Okinawa's main island. It is split into a Beachfront Wing and a Sunset Wing and holds several pools, one of them carrying the orchid mosaic that is the emblem of the original Halekulani in Waikiki.
ザ・リッツ・カールトン日光
On the shore of Lake Chuzenji, looking out at the lake on one side and Mount Nantai on the other. It was the brand's first resort in Japan built with a hot spring, and has a communal bath in the building.
パレスホテル東京
An independent hotel facing the moat of the Imperial Palace. What sets it apart is that the water and greenery of Wadakura moat are in view directly from the rooms, some of which have balconies. The pastry shop and the bar inside draw people from the neighbourhood as much as guests.
マンダリン オリエンタル 東京
A city hotel occupying the upper floors of the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower. Every room is high up, so whichever one you take, Tokyo is laid out below. The spa and the dining rooms carry a lot of the weight here and are used by people who are not staying.
HOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO
Directly opposite Nijo Castle, on the site of the Mitsui family’s own residence. You enter through the Kajiimiya gate, moved here and rebuilt, and the guest wings stand around a garden at the centre. A thermal spring drawn from under the grounds feeds the bathhouse.
ザ・プリンスギャラリー 東京紀尾井町
On the upper floors of Kioi Tower, with a lobby lounge on the thirtieth looking out over the city. The green of the Imperial Palace and the Akasaka Estate fills more of the view than it does from most hotels in central Tokyo.
ROKU KYOTO
A low-rise resort at the foot of the Takagamine hills, next to the Shozan gardens. It has a communal bath fed by a natural hot spring and an outdoor pool facing the garden. Being out of the city, it is quiet in a way the centre is not.
ザ・リッツ・カールトン京都
On the bank of the Kamo river, looking across it to the Higashiyama hills. It is in the middle of the city but built low along the water, so the rooms look out onto the river and the gardens.
ザ・リッツ・カールトン大阪
Opened in Nishi-Umeda in 1997, the first of the international luxury houses in the Kansai region. The eighteenth-century English interiors run through the whole building, which sets it apart from the modern hotels that opened recently.
ザ・リッツ・カールトン東京
At the top of Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi, with every room high up. On a clear day the view carries as far as Mount Fuji, which is why stay reports keep returning to which way a room faces.
ザ・ペニンシュラ東京
On the corner at Hibiya, facing the outer gardens of the Imperial Palace and Hibiya Park head-on. The lobby lounge on the lower floors works as a place to meet, and plenty of the people in it are not staying. The rooms are generously sized all the way up.
ブルガリ ホテル 東京
The Bulgari hotel on the upper floors of Tokyo Midtown Yaesu. The interiors come from the brand's Italian design team, and the rooms, worked in black and gold, carry the house style over intact.
ザ・キャピトルホテル東急
A hotel in Nagatacho, connected directly to Tameike-Sanno and Kokkai-gijido-mae subway stations and about ten minutes by car from Tokyo Station. It stands facing the trees of the neighbouring Hie Shrine. It holds five stars in the Forbes Travel Guide 2026 and two Michelin Keys in the 2026 selection, and has Japanese and Chinese restaurants. Akasaka, Kasumigaseki and Ginza are easy to reach by subway.
The full list, including properties not yet written up in English, is on the Japanese version of this page.
オークラ東京
A rebuilding of the Hotel Okura, which first opened in 1962, in Toranomon. It is split in two: the low-rise Heritage Wing and the high-rise Prestige Tower. The lobby of the old main building has been preserved and recreated, down to the lantern-shaped lights and the arrangement of tables that people came to photograph.
アマン東京
Aman's first urban hotel, on the upper floors of Otemachi Tower and topping out on the 38th. The lobby is an atrium of roughly 30 metres, and the washi-and-stone interior is kept unusually dark for a city hotel. Every room is a suite: the smallest Garden View Suite is 71 sqm, the Aman Suite 157 sqm. All rates include breakfast and the wellness floor, with a 30-metre indoor pool and Japanese baths.
コンラッド大阪
On the upper floors of Nakanoshima Festival Tower West, with the rooms at around the fortieth floor. The view opens north towards Umeda and south across the rest of the city.
パーク ハイアット 京都
A low-rise city hotel on the slope of Ninenzaka, with the Yasaka Pagoda close enough to fill a window. It keeps its room count down and its height in line with the streets of Higashiyama around it.
ザ・リッツ・カールトン沖縄
On a hillside at Kise in Nago, with the guest wings gathered around a body of water that recalls the moat of a castle. It is not on the beach; a shuttle takes you to the private one. A golf course sits next door.
帝国ホテル東京
A hotel facing Hibiya Park and the Imperial Palace Outer Garden, opened in 1890 and one of Tokyo’s representative classic hotels. It is a three-minute walk from Hibiya subway station and five minutes from Ginza Station and JR Yurakucho Station, so both Ginza and Marunouchi are within walking distance. It holds four stars in the Forbes Travel Guide 2026. The main building is due to be rebuilt; the current one was completed in 1970.
フォーシーズンズホテル東京大手町
On the upper floors of a tower in Otemachi, with the view opening both towards the Imperial Palace and towards Tokyo Station. The glass-walled pool and spa sit at the very top, and swimming while looking out over the city is what stay reports come back to.
アンダーズ 東京
The upper floors of Toranomon Hills Mori Tower. There is no check-in desk; staff handle it in your room or in the public areas. The rooftop bar on the top floor looks straight at Tokyo Tower.
フォーシーズンズホテル京都
Next to Myoho-in in Higashiyama, with Shakusuien — a pond garden said to be more than eight hundred years old — inside the grounds. The guest wings are arranged around it, so the water is below you from indoors.
翠嵐 ラグジュアリーコレクションホテル 京都
On the bank of the Oi river, east of Tenryu-ji in Arashiyama. Wings kept from a Meiji-era villa stand alongside modern ones, so the building your room is in changes what the room is like. The garden makes use of the riverside setting.
JWマリオット・ホテル奈良
A hotel on Sanjo Oji in Nara, the first JW Marriott in Japan. It is about ten minutes on foot from Shin-Omiya Station on the Kintetsu Nara Line, and well placed for driving to the Heijo Palace site and Nara Park. It holds four stars in the Forbes Travel Guide 2026 and one Michelin Key in the 2026 selection, and has a Japanese garden and a tea room.
シャングリ・ラ 東京
A hotel on the upper floors of the Marunouchi Trust Tower main building, facing the Nihonbashi exit of Tokyo Station. JR Tokyo Station is a minute’s walk away, and Marunouchi and Nihonbashi are both within walking distance. The rooms are on high floors with open views over central Tokyo. It holds four stars in the Forbes Travel Guide 2026 and one Michelin Key in the 2026 selection, and has a spa and a pool.
ザ・プリンス パークタワー東京
A hotel in Shiba Park with Tokyo Tower close at hand. It has the Panoramic Floor at the top of the building and a Premium Club floor with its own lounge, and rooms range up to suites of 50 to 135 sqm. Inside are a natural hot spring drawn from 1,600 metres below Shiba Park, a 25-metre indoor pool and a bowling salon.
ザ・ホテル青龍 京都清水
At the foot of Kiyomizu-dera, in a primary school building from the early Showa era that has been kept and converted. The old façade and its arched windows remain, with rooms and restaurants built inside. The building is itself part of the view around the Yasaka Pagoda.
フォーシーズンズホテル丸の内 東京
A small hotel with few rooms, on the upper floors of a building connected to the Nihombashi exit of Tokyo Station. It is a different property from the Four Seasons at Otemachi, and different in scale and character. Some rooms look down on the Shinkansen platforms.
フォーシーズンズホテル大阪
On the upper floors of a mixed-use building in Dojima, the brand's first property in the Kansai region. It holds both modern floors and a "Garden Floor" done in tatami and shoji.
デュシタニ京都
A hotel in the temple town in front of Nishi Honganji, the first Dusit Thani in Japan, opened in September 2023. It is about twelve minutes on foot from the central exit of JR Kyoto Station, with Nishi Honganji and Higashi Honganji within walking distance. It holds four stars in the Forbes Travel Guide 2026 and one Michelin Key in the 2026 selection, and has several restaurants including a Thai restaurant.
ザ・プリンス さくらタワー東京、オートグラフ コレクション
A hotel in Shinagawa and Takanawa, about three minutes on foot from the Takanawa exit of JR Shinagawa Station and about five from Takanawadai Station on the Asakusa line. It is part of the Autograph Collection, and guests can use the sauna and gym. It holds four stars in the Forbes Travel Guide 2026 and has restaurants. Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa and a Japanese garden share the grounds.
ホテル椿山荘東京
A hotel set in a garden at Sekiguchi in Bunkyo, on the Mejirodai slope. The garden was laid out in 1878 by Yamagata Aritomo, who bought a scenic spot then known as Tsubakiyama; most of it was lost to air raids in 1945, and it was rebuilt by transplanting more than ten thousand trees, reopening in November 1952 as a garden restaurant called Chinzanso. In 1992 the Four Seasons Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo opened on the same grounds, and in 2013 the two were merged into what is now Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo. Rooms run from the 45-square-metre Prime Superior to the 280-square-metre Imperial Suite, and suites of 60 square metres and above come with the executive lounge. Since 2020 the garden has carried a mist installation called Tokyo Unkai, which changed in July 2026 to a new version. Entry to the garden is limited to people using the hotel. About ten minutes on foot from Edogawabashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line.
The full list, including properties not yet written up in English, is on the Japanese version of this page.