Dormy Inn is awesome. Has really become my favorite hotel chain in Japan.

Even if you don't care about APA being a very weird business, the other chains that OP recommended are simply better. Cleaner, nicer, better service.

Avoid APA at all costs, especially outside touristic areas. APA is used by everyone for all things, legal or not, and the state of your room may vary wildly.

Not my experience at all... I've used APA throughout the whole of Japan and they are consistently good. Especially in terms of furnishings and soundproofing. They're also extremely cheap and available in almost every city. What you say about the rooms could be said about basically any hotel of course.

I'm from the UK where even a crap hotel costs $80-100/night, so being able to pay under $40 for the quality APA provides (even if the rooms are small) is insane to me.

Notice that I mentioned that they get bad outside of touristic areas. I mean the ones where someone from the UK wouldn't normally stay, like a business area or a local transportation hub.

Meaning the ones used by drunks, drug addicts, and prostitutes.

I've stayed in a bunch of them across the country but maybe I haven't been to any particularly rough areas. They all have a practically identical layout (both building and rooms) as far as I can tell. Any examples?

I am not talking about layout. I am talking about unclean bathrooms and beds, mold, cigarrette smells in the corridors, people falling over in the corridors, weird noises at night, aircons that don't work.

APA does not provide top notch maintenance for its hotels in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Nishi Kasai, Meidaimae, or any non important area.

If you stay in the hotel close to the central station of a small town - that's touristic. Japanese tourists are staying there.

What I mean is that APA is really bad off the beaten path, and since the article recommends branching off, using APA is a very bad idea.

I've stayed in an APA that literally had a sign outside advertising short stays (=love hotel) and even that one was really nice and well-run (lol)

You got lucky, the short stays is a hallmark of bad shit going down

Yes, I do my best to avoid APA for this reason.

Other major business hotel chains:

* Toyoko Inn

* Dormy Inn (almost always has a bath on the top floor!)

* Candeo hotels (same!)

* M's hotels (there are many variations on the "M's" name)

* Unizo

* Smile hotel

* Hotel mystays

* Hotel livemax

* Daiwa Roynet

...and tons of others that are less universal. While there are subtle differences between them (e.g. some have better beds, others have laundry facilities, some have public baths on the top floor), virtually all "business hotels" have the same set of features, down to the layout of the rooms, and can usually be had for $50-$100 a night. That said, they are small, and you will not be happy if you're the kind of tourist who lugs multiple large suitcases everywhere you go, or if you're seeking a "luxury" experience.

Business hotels are cheap places to crash for a night and little more.

APA hotel isn't a great choice for most (American) tourists anyway - the rooms are extremely small. Most customers seem to be solo Japanese businessmen.

Is this a reference to American obesity or something else..?

No, more that American hotels are a lot larger than European ones (I'm from the UK) and I assumed (with no real evidence) that Americans carry more luggage.

Although it is true that Japan is a bit of a struggle if you are overweight or especially tall.

One of the best room I ever had was in Norway. It was at most 3 times as large as the queensized bed, had at least 5 different lighting options and a fantastic black-out curtain (this was needed above the Arctic circle) and tons of small storage places and hooks - and this includes a tiny bathroom. Everything you need, and super cozy.

Americans are very fond of wide open spaces and square footage. Imagine being from Colorado, Wyoming, or Montana...or even California...and staying in a Japanese salaryman hotel. It's going to be claustrophobic for some people not used to the experience.

The hotel advice is if you're paying normal hotel prices you're going to get a room that's not absurd.

It's more that Japan (and many other places) have a product class at a pricing point that Americans do not so Americans think they've gotten a great deal but instead it's a product they're not expecting and not familiar with.

Maybe you want that, just know what you're buying.

There are hotels in Europe with rooms as small as cruise ship ones (I stayed at one like this called the cab-inn in Aarhus). Mountain lodges in national parks tend to have small rooms also, especially if built during the 19th century.

Interesting. My wife worked for APA. I never heard about this before, I’ll have to ask.

If I may, I would also like to recommend Richmond and Route Inn here. I have been to the Richmond in Sendai and Morioka in Tohoku on three different occasions. The best thing is that no one wants to take a copy of my residence card, which to the best of my knowledge (statement from the MHLW) they are not supposed to ask you for anyway, but a lot of hotels do ask and then suggest you go find another place if you don’t want to comply.

He posted mentioning this on Twitter quite recently so I think the post itself is new, but the content within may not be.

I was surprised Deus Ex had shut down, but it is not exactly like they had an obligation to send me a memo.

I just meant that you explicitly couched it as a distillation of advice you've given many times before, so it's perhaps to be expected if some of it isn't totally up-to-date.