One of the oldest accommodation providers in Japan will once more open its doors to overnight guests early in 2026 but, unlike the building’s former residents, this time visitors will be free to come and go as they please.
The erstwhile Nara Prison, built at the start of the 20th century during Japan’s Meiji era, has already been undergoing work and will eventually be ‘reformed’ into a luxury hotel. After a government agreement in 2017, seismic retrofitting began on the red-brick structure, which has been listed as an Important Cultural Property of Japan thanks to its historical significance and architectural excellence.

A unique experience
On a vast site of over 100,000 square metres and featuring a central watchtower overseeing radial wings, the prison is now set to be refurbed by Azuma Architect & Associates and “reborn as a luxury hotel where guests can enjoy an extraordinary stay” courtesy of Hoshino Resorts, under their HOSHINOYA banner.
The brand specialises in providing “a unique experience focused on the local charms of each destination and a high level of omotenashi, Japanese-style hospitality” according to their website.

48 rooms and an on-site museum
The final design for the prison hotel has not yet been revealed but designboom reported in 2023 that “the design team plans to keep it as it is while tailoring it for hospitality purposes.”
We do however already know the specification includes 48 rooms, a restaurant and lounge, and the hotel group promises that, like its eight other HOSHINOYA-branded hotels, the HOSHINOYA Nara Prison will be a “one-of-a-kind” embodying “distinct themes, conceptualized from [its] land, history, and culture.”

Part of that mission will be fulfilled by creating an on-site museum that will be open to day visitors and hotel guests. Showcasing the life and times of Nara Prison as one of five Meiji international-standard prisons and a model for all Japanese detention centres, archival material from the site has already been collected. It will help tell the story of the hotel’s past and, who knows, perhaps the colourful tales of some of its former less willing “guests”?

Sacred deer and UNESCO gems
After visiting the prison museum perhaps and before cosying up for the night in their converted solitary confinement cell, clients can exercise their freedom as they wish. They could spend their time encountering the area’s sacred, free-roaming deer and unlocking the UNESCO-recognised treasures of Nara itself.

An ancient and modern day capital city, described by Lonely Planet as “overshadowed by its more famous neighbours” Kyoto and Osaka, it is now looking forward to the increase in tourist numbers the reformed HOSHINOYA Nara Prison is predicted to unleash.