The snow crab (zuwaigani) season opens on November 6 every year. In 2026 that date falls on a Friday, so the first weekend on which the season’s first crab reaches inn dinner tables will be November 7–8. The HotelBank Editorial Team tallied guest reviews from the past 24 months across eight prefectures — Hyogo, Kyoto, Fukui, Tottori, Hokkaido, Niigata, Ishikawa and Shimane — and found 361 inns where dinner crab is mentioned positively in 10 or more reviews. At 135 of them, at least one in five reviews mentions crab. The mention rate is tightly linked to inn size: at inns with 10 rooms or fewer, 37.9% of reviews talk about crab, compared with only 4.0% at properties with 101 rooms or more. This article counts, by prefecture and by municipality, the inns where crab is the product, and then uses finalized months to measure how many times higher the estimated settled ADR in those clusters is in winter compared with September.
• ADR (average daily rate) = an estimated settled rate (tax-excluded equivalent), calculated by applying a property-type adjustment factor to the lowest-priced plan each property publishes on OTAs (per-room rate for 2 guests sharing one room, tax included). Checked against property-level results disclosed by listed hotel REITs (91 properties, most recent 3 months), the median error is about 7%. These are estimates and differ from each property’s actual settled prices and accounting figures.
• ADR at the area level (prefecture, city/town) is the median of the estimated settled rates of the properties covered (the level of a typical property in that area).
• Where listed prices are mentioned, they are per-room rates for 2 guests sharing one room (tax included).
• OCC (occupancy) = rooms sold as a share of total rooms in the area (an estimate based on OTA sales inventory).
• Source: MetroEngines Research (continuously tracks OTA published prices for about 168,000 properties in Japan, of which about 27,000 have confirmed activity)
Crab mention rate = the share of an inn’s total reviews that refer positively to crab at dinner (crab kaiseki, grilled crab, kanisuki crab hot pot, all-you-can-eat crab, etc.). It measures how often crab is mentioned and is not a rating score. The analysis covers inns with at least 20 reviews in the past 24 months (as of October 2026) and at least 10 positive crab mentions, retrieving up to 100 inns per prefecture. Hyogo reached the 100-inn cap, so the true count there is higher (the 100th inn had 12 mentions, meaning inns with 10–11 mentions are not included). Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research.
Key Takeaways
— Across the eight prefectures, 361 inns have crab discussed in their reviews (164,943 reviews; 13,741 crab mentions). 216 have a mention rate of 10% or more and 135 have 20% or more; of those 135, Hyogo (56), Kyoto (44) and Fukui (22) together account for 122.
— Median mention rates are 30.0% in Kyoto, 23.6% in Hyogo and 17.7% in Fukui, versus 4.2% in Hokkaido, 4.4% in Shimane and 5.4% in Ishikawa. In Hokkaido, Ishikawa and Shimane, crab-mentioned inns are large (median 49–104 rooms), and crab is discussed as one element of a varied dinner.
— Inn size and mention rate move in opposite directions. The 91 inns with 10 rooms or fewer have a median mention rate of 37.9%, and 79.1% of them exceed 20%. The median is 18.3% for 11–30 rooms and 7.8% for 31–60 rooms, converging to around 4% at 61 rooms and above (correlation between log room count and mention rate: −0.65, N=361).
— By municipality, all 34 inns in Kami Town have a mention rate of 10% or more (median 54.1%, median 7 rooms). In Kyotango City 41 of 52 inns are at 20% or more, as are 10 of 11 in Echizen Town and 7 of 9 in Sakai City.
— Estimated settled ADR averaged over November 2025–February 2026 relative to September 2025 was 2.88x in Echizen Town and 2.32x in Kyotango City, and 1.66–1.87x in Hyogo’s three Tajima municipalities (December–February average). Compared with the same period of the previous season, winter rates rose +12.8% in Echizen, +14.4% in Kyotango and +17.6% in Kami — the more crab-focused inns a town has, the more its winter rates have grown.
Season Opening and Fishing Periods — Males Nov 6 to Mar 20; Kasumi Red Snow Crab Sep to May
Let us start with the calendar. For the snow crab fishery in the Sea of Japan from Shimane to Toyama, a Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ordinance sets a closed season from March 21 to November 5, so fishing opens simultaneously every year on November 6. Fukui Prefecture’s Fisheries Division states in its published materials that the season opens at “0:00 a.m. on November 6,” and Tottori Prefecture also notes that the 2025 snow crab season opened on November 6. Under the same rules, the 2026 season is expected to open on Friday, November 6, making Saturday, November 7 and Sunday, November 8 the first weekend when the first catch appears on inn dinner menus.
The season for male snow crab runs until March 20 of the following year, while females — called seiko-gani, seko-gani or oya-gani — have a shorter season for stock conservation; in Fukui it ends on December 31. Males and females therefore appear on the same menu only during the roughly eight weeks from November 6 to year-end, which is the period with the richest menus for inns in the producing regions. Meanwhile, red snow crab (beni-zuwaigani) landed at Kasumi Port in Kami Town, Hyogo — branded Kasumi-gani — opens on September 1 and can be fished until May 31. This is why inns in Tajima can build crab menus from September, and from November onward Matsuba-gani and Kasumi-gani run side by side.
| Type | Fishing season | Main regional brands / landing ports |
|---|---|---|
| Snow crab (male) | Nov 6 – Mar 20 (following year) | Echizen-gani (Fukui), Kano-gani (Ishikawa), Matsuba-gani (Kyoto, Hyogo, Tottori, Shimane). Port brands include Taiza-gani (Kyotango City), Tsuiyama-gani (Toyooka City) and Shibayama-gani (Kami Town) |
| Snow crab (female) | Nov 6 – Dec 31 (as published by Fukui Prefecture) | Seiko-gani (Fukui), Kobako-gani (Ishikawa), Seko-gani / Oya-gani (San’in) |
| Red snow crab | Sep 1 – May 31 (following year) | Kasumi-gani (Hyogo, Kasumi Port), Sakaiminato (Tottori), etc. |
Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from Fukui Prefecture Fisheries Division, “Opening of the Echizen-gani season”; Tottori Prefecture, “Tottori Matsuba-gani”; Kyukamura Takeno-Kaigan press release (Kasumi-gani season); and Akita Sakigake Shimpo (November 6, 2025). Seasons may be shortened by sea area or by each prefecture’s voluntary regulations.
Inn Counts and Mention-Rate Distribution by Prefecture — 122 of 135 in Hyogo, Kyoto and Fukui
So where are guests actually talking about crab? Ranking the 361 inns covered across the eight prefectures, Hyogo has the most with 100 (the retrieval cap), followed by Kyoto 66, Fukui 49, Hokkaido 44, Tottori 38, Ishikawa 31, Niigata 20 and Shimane 13. Counts alone, however, do not reveal the real character of each producing region. Splitting each inn’s crab mention rate into four bands makes the differences between prefectures clear. The distribution for 613 inns across all 47 prefectures is covered in Crab Season 2026 Opens Nov 6: 613 Inns, Rates Up to 3.6x in Echizen.
In Hyogo, 36 of 100 inns have a mention rate of 40% or more, rising to 56 at 20% or more. In Kyoto, 44 of 66 inns are at 20% or more; in Fukui, 22 of 49. By contrast, 34 of 44 inns in Hokkaido are below 10%, and none reach 40%. In Ishikawa, 25 of 31 are below 10%, and in Shimane 9 of 13. In Tottori, 22 of 38 are below 10% and only 4 are at 20% or more. By median, the order is Kyoto 30.0%, Hyogo 23.6%, Fukui 17.7%, Niigata 12.8%, Tottori 7.8%, Ishikawa 5.4%, Shimane 4.4% and Hokkaido 4.2%.
Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (NLP analysis of guest reviews, N=361 inns, 164,943 reviews, past 24 months; Hyogo capped at 100 inns)
| Prefecture | Inns | 10%+ | 20%+ | Median mention rate | Median rooms | Total reviews | Crab mentions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyogo | 100 (cap) | 81 | 56 | 23.6% | 14 | 28,509 | 3,811 |
| Kyoto | 66 | 55 | 44 | 30.0% | 12 | 18,168 | 2,326 |
| Fukui | 49 | 33 | 22 | 17.7% | 17 | 16,493 | 1,862 |
| Tottori | 38 | 16 | 4 | 7.8% | 37 | 25,752 | 1,660 |
| Hokkaido | 44 | 10 | 3 | 4.2% | 104 | 42,419 | 2,266 |
| Niigata | 20 | 11 | 3 | 12.8% | 34 | 7,588 | 438 |
| Ishikawa | 31 | 6 | 2 | 5.4% | 49 | 17,194 | 994 |
| Shimane | 13 | 4 | 1 | 4.4% | 70 | 8,820 | 384 |
| Total | 361 | 216 | 135 | — | — | 164,943 | 13,741 |
Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (past 24 months; inns with 20+ reviews and 10+ positive crab mentions)
What drives this gap is probably whether crab is “the inn’s product itself” or “one of several dinner options.” Crab-mentioned inns in Hokkaido have a median of 104 rooms, in Ishikawa 49 and in Shimane 70 — mostly large onsen ryokan and resort hotels. For example, Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Yamashitaya (大江戸温泉物語Premium 山下家, 108 rooms), the inn with the most crab mentions in Ishikawa, has 161 of its 829 reviews talking about crab, such as its “all-crab buffet”; its 19.4% mention rate is strikingly high for a large property. In Hokkaido, Imagine Hotel & Resort Hakodate (イマジン ホテル＆リゾート函館; 2,268 reviews, 364 mentions) and Hotel Mahoroba (ホテルまほろば; 2,165 reviews, 300 mentions) far exceed the small inns of Tajima and Tango in absolute mention counts. Two types coexist within the same category of “crab inn”: large properties that win on volume of mentions, and small inns that win on rate.
Mention Rate and Inn Size — 37.9% at 10 Rooms or Fewer, 4.0% at 101 Rooms or More
Re-cutting those two types along the axis of size makes the relationship very clear. Dividing the 361 inns into five room-count bands, the 91 inns with 10 rooms or fewer have a median crab mention rate of 37.9%, with 79.1% exceeding 20%. For the 115 inns with 11–30 rooms the median is 18.3% and 46.1% are at 20% or more; for the 64 inns with 31–60 rooms, 7.8% and 14.1%; for the 46 inns with 61–100 rooms, 4.4% and 2.2%; and for the 45 inns with 101 rooms or more, 4.0%, with none above 20%. The correlation coefficient between log room count and mention rate is −0.65 — a structure in which each order-of-magnitude decrease in size moves the mention rate up one band.
Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (N=361 inns; room counts from the MetroEngines Research property master)
| Room count | Inns | Median mention rate | Share with mention rate 20%+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 or fewer | 91 | 37.9% | 79.1% |
| 11–30 | 115 | 18.3% | 46.1% |
| 31–60 | 64 | 7.8% | 14.1% |
| 61–100 | 46 | 4.4% | 2.2% |
| 101 or more | 45 | 4.0% | 0.0% |
Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (past 24 months)
The same holds when viewed from the other direction. The 65 inns with a mention rate of 40% or more have a median of 9 rooms, and 66.2% of them have 10 rooms or fewer. The 70 inns at 20–40% have a median of 12.5 rooms, the 81 at 10–20% have 24, and the 145 below 10% have 62 — inns get larger as the band goes down. At small cuisine-focused ryokan and minshuku guesthouses, the stay itself is synonymous with crab, so reviews naturally converge on it. This does not mean large properties are less likely to be praised for crab; rather, their reviews are spread across varied dinners, hot springs and facilities, which dilutes the rate.
That said, there are inns with several dozen rooms where crab is the main topic. Ryokufukaku (緑風閣) in Hyogo has 142 of 485 reviews (29.3%) mentioning crab, Kashoen (佳松苑) in Kyoto 145 of 504 (28.8%), and Yuhigaura Onsen Kaishu (夕日ヶ浦温泉 海舟) 157 of 372 (42.2%). Kaike Grand Hotel Tensui (皆生グランドホテル 天水) in Tottori (1,073 reviews, 180 mentions, 16.8%) and Awara Onsen Seifuso (あわら温泉 清風荘) in Fukui (1,619 reviews, 243 mentions, 15.0%) also rank first in their prefectures by mention count. The pattern — large properties lead on counts, small inns lead on rates — shows that both metrics need to be watched when designing a winter menu.
Clusters by Municipality — All 34 Inns in Kami Town Are 10%+, 41 of 52 in Kyotango Are 20%+
So where are the inns at which crab is the main topic concentrated? By municipality, Kyotango City has the most inns at 52, followed by Toyooka City 48, Kami Town 34, Kaga City 22, Yonago City 18 and Awara City 14. Overlaying the mention-rate distribution again separates their characters. In Kami Town, all 34 inns are at both 10% and 20% or more, with a median mention rate of 54.1% and a median of just 7 rooms — the 34 inns total only 301 rooms. The structure of small cuisine-focused minshuku with a few to a dozen-odd rooms lining fishing-port villages such as Kasumi, Shibayama and Satsu shows up directly in the numbers.
In Kyotango City, 48 of 52 inns are at 10% or more and 41 at 20% or more, with a median of 32.7% and a median of 11.5 rooms. Centered on the minshuku and small ryokan of Yuhigaura, Taiza and Kumihama, the inns total 775 rooms. In Echizen Town, 10 of 11 inns are at 20% or more (median 32.5%), and in Sakai City (Mikuni) 7 of 9 (median 30.6%) — the inns of the Echizen coast and Mikuni Port follow the same pattern as Tajima and Tango. In Toyooka City, 19 of 48 inns are at 20% or more, with a somewhat diluted median of 16.2%, probably because Kinosaki Onsen has many mid-sized ryokan (median 16 rooms), whose reviews also cover non-crab dishes and the hot-spring-town experience.
By contrast, only 1 of 22 inns in Kaga City, 1 of 14 in Awara City and 2 of 18 in Yonago City are at 20% or more. All three are onsen towns where the median inn has 37–52 rooms; Kaga’s 22 inns total 1,304 rooms and Awara’s 14 total 991 — more than the 775 rooms of Kyotango’s 52 inns. Crab kaiseki is sold as one of many dinner plans, and reviews are spread across the hot springs and in-house facilities. Even among “onsen towns in crab-producing regions,” the concentration of crab as a product varies greatly from town to town.
| Municipality | Inns | 10%+ | 20%+ | Median mention rate | Median rooms | Total rooms | Total reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyotango City (Kyoto) | 52 | 48 | 41 | 32.7% | 12 | 775 | 7,103 |
| Toyooka City (Hyogo) | 48 | 39 | 19 | 16.2% | 16 | 1,189 | 13,008 |
| Kami Town (Hyogo) | 34 | 34 | 34 | 54.1% | 7 | 301 | 2,172 |
| Kaga City (Ishikawa) | 22 | 5 | 1 | 6.0% | 48 | 1,304 | 12,261 |
| Yonago City (Tottori) | 18 | 6 | 2 | 5.9% | 37 | 836 | 12,359 |
| Awara City (Fukui) | 14 | 4 | 1 | 7.3% | 52 | 991 | 9,738 |
| Miyazu City (Kyoto) | 11 | 5 | 3 | 8.4% | 13 | 502 | 5,758 |
| Echizen Town (Fukui) | 11 | 10 | 10 | 32.5% | 11 | 119 | 1,114 |
| Misasa Town (Tottori) | 11 | 6 | 0 | 10.2% | 40 | 504 | 5,792 |
| Shin’onsen Town (Hyogo) | 10 | 6 | 3 | 12.5% | 30 | 401 | 4,485 |
| Sakai City (Fukui) | 9 | 9 | 7 | 30.6% | 13 | 243 | 1,155 |
| Hakodate City (Hokkaido) | 9 | 1 | 0 | 5.0% | 151 | 1,444 | 11,326 |
Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (12 municipalities with the most inns covered, past 24 months; because Hyogo hit the 100-inn cap, actual counts for Toyooka, Kami and Shin’onsen may be higher)
Plotting the inns with a mention rate of 20% or more on a map, the points line up along three coastlines: the Tajima coast (Kami Town, Shin’onsen Town, Takeno in Toyooka City), the Tango Peninsula (Kyotango City, Miyazu City) and the Echizen coast (Echizen Town, Mikuni in Sakai City). Circle size is proportional to the mention rate, and large circles cluster along the coasts of Kami Town and Kyotango City.
Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (135 inns with a mention rate of 20%+; circle size = mention rate)
The top 20 inns by mention rate are almost all in Kami Town and Kyotango City. The top-ranked inn in Kami Town has 17 of 21 reviews (81.0%) mentioning crab, followed by an inn in Kyotango City at 73.2% and a minshuku in Kami Town at 72.7%. The top 20 have 4–17 rooms, and many have small review bases of 20–81 reviews, which should be kept in mind — but no other region has such a concentration of inns where “crab is the reason to stay.” Among inns with larger review bases, Kojin no Yado Sanpo (荒神の宿 三宝) in Kami Town (236 reviews, 125 mentions, 53.0%) and Yunagi no Oka (夕凪の丘; 198 reviews, 95 mentions, 48.0%), and Kumihama Ryokan Minato Yuyu (久美浜旅館 みなと悠悠) in Kyotango City (65 reviews, 36 mentions, 55.4%) maintain high mention rates.
| Rank | Inn | Location | Rooms | Reviews | Crab mentions | Mention rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chiisana Oyado Takiroku (ちいさなお宿 たきろく) | Kami, Hyogo | 4 | 21 | 17 | 81.0% |
| 2 | Kutsurogi no Yado Hamaya (くつろぎの宿 浜や) | Kyotango, Kyoto | 10 | 41 | 30 | 73.2% |
| 3 | Minshuku (民宿 一) | Kami, Hyogo | 5 | 55 | 40 | 72.7% |
| 4 | Oyado Tatsumi (御宿 たつみ) | Kami, Hyogo | 16 | 22 | 16 | 72.7% |
| 5 | Minshuku Kazuko (民宿 かず子) | Kyotango, Kyoto | 5 | 29 | 21 | 72.4% |
| 6 | Kameya (かめや) | Kami, Hyogo | 7 | 35 | 25 | 71.4% |
| 7 | Kani Rakuza (かに楽座 甲羅戯) | Kami, Hyogo | 17 | 81 | 57 | 70.4% |
| 8 | Koyado Umenoya (小宿 梅乃家) | Kami, Hyogo | 4 | 43 | 30 | 69.8% |
| 9 | Imagoso Kai no Uta (いまご荘 櫂の詩) | Kami, Hyogo | 9 | 39 | 27 | 69.2% |
| 10 | Genroku (源六) | Kami, Hyogo | 6 | 45 | 31 | 68.9% |
| 11 | Shun no Yado Ozakiya (旬の宿 尾崎屋) | Kami, Hyogo | 7 | 34 | 23 | 67.6% |
| 12 | Shoya (庄屋) | Kami, Hyogo | 14 | 40 | 27 | 67.5% |
| 13 | Shiki no Yado (四季の宿 大力) | Kyotango, Kyoto | 6 | 26 | 17 | 65.4% |
| 14 | 颯花 | Kami, Hyogo | 6 | 20 | 13 | 65.0% |
| 15 | Oku no Sho (奥の庄) | Kyotango, Kyoto | 8 | 30 | 19 | 63.3% |
| 16 | Oyado (御宿 矢吉) | Kyotango, Kyoto | 10 | 23 | 14 | 60.9% |
| 17 | Mikuniya (海望 三国屋) | Sakai, Fukui | 13 | 27 | 16 | 59.3% |
| 18 | Yasuragi no Yado (やすらぎの宿 丸世井) | Kami, Hyogo | 10 | 22 | 13 | 59.1% |
| 19 | Nishitaniya (にしたにや 海華) | Kami, Hyogo | 10 | 55 | 32 | 58.2% |
| 20 | Minshuku Hamanoya (民宿 浜乃家) | Miyazu, Kyoto | 12 | 21 | 12 | 57.1% |
Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (in descending order of mention rate, past 24 months; inns with 20+ reviews and 10+ positive crab mentions)
September vs. Winter Rates — Echizen 2.88x, Kyotango 2.32x; Clusters Also Grew Most Year on Year
In towns where crab-focused inns cluster, how much do rates switch at the season opening? Using MetroEngines Research data to compare estimated settled ADR by municipality for September 2025 and November 2025–February 2026 (December–February for the three Hyogo municipalities) — both periods with finalized figures — Echizen Town rose 2.88x from ¥18,600 in September to a winter average of ¥53,500, and Kyotango City 2.32x from ¥17,700 to ¥41,000. In Tajima, the ratio was 1.87x in Shin’onsen Town, 1.74x in Kami Town and 1.66x in Toyooka City, and 1.63x in Sakai City (Mikuni). By contrast, the step is gentler in cities where large onsen ryokan or downtown business hotels set the median: Awara City 1.18x, Yonago City 1.17x and Tottori City 1.02x. For a direct comparison of the opening-weekend Saturday against October Saturdays (rather than monthly figures), see Crab Season 2026: Ryokan Rates Up to 44% Above October Saturdays, which tests the gap across four prefectures.
Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (estimated settled ADR, median across all property types, finalized months only; three Hyogo municipalities use the December–February average)
| Municipality | Sep 2025 | Winter 2025–26 avg | Winter ÷ Sep | Prior season Winter ÷ Sep | Winter YoY | N (Feb 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyooka City (Hyogo)* | ¥18,600 | ¥30,888 | 1.66x | 1.55x | +2.6% | 103 |
| Kami Town (Hyogo)* | ¥23,074 | ¥40,217 | 1.74x | 1.41x | +17.6% | 54 |
| Shin’onsen Town (Hyogo)* | ¥13,042 | ¥24,413 | 1.87x | 1.80x | +4.7% | 22 |
| Kyotango City (Kyoto) | ¥17,667 | ¥40,954 | 2.32x | 1.72x | +14.4% | 82 |
| Miyazu City (Kyoto) | ¥17,833 | ¥26,556 | 1.49x | 1.71x | +9.3% | 30 |
| Echizen Town (Fukui) | ¥18,586 | ¥53,474 | 2.88x | 2.52x | +12.8% | 20 |
| Sakai City (Fukui) | ¥8,948 | ¥14,629 | 1.63x | 1.33x | -2.0% | 14 |
| Awara City (Fukui) | ¥20,925 | ¥24,733 | 1.18x | 1.24x | +7.4% | 22 |
| Yonago City (Tottori) | ¥6,679 | ¥7,821 | 1.17x | 1.07x | +9.5% | 45 |
| Tottori City (Tottori) | ¥7,891 | ¥8,078 | 1.02x | 1.05x | -3.5% | 35 |
Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research. Winter = average estimated settled ADR for November–February (*three Hyogo municipalities use the 3-month December–February average, with the prior season compared on the same months). Prior season = September 2024 and winter 2024–25. N = number of properties used to calculate estimated settled ADR.
What stands out is that the size of the ratio lines up with the clustering of mention rates, and that growth from the previous season was also larger in the clusters. Winter estimated settled ADR rose by double digits year on year in Kami Town (+17.6%), Kyotango City (+14.4%) and Echizen Town (+12.8%), while growth was in single digits in Awara City (+7.4%), Toyooka City (+2.6%) and Shin’onsen Town (+4.7%), and Sakai City and Tottori City fell slightly below the previous year. Because only winter grew while September levels were flat or below the previous year, the ratios themselves widened: Kami Town from 1.41x to 1.74x, Kyotango City from 1.72x to 2.32x and Echizen Town from 2.52x to 2.88x. This does not demonstrate causation, but it suggests that the more densely guests talk about crab in a town, the more room winter rates have to move independently of autumn.
Tracked month by month, Kyotango City and Echizen Town shift to a different price tier as soon as November begins, peak from December to January, dip slightly in February and then hold a plateau until the end of the fishing season in March. In the 2025–26 season, the November ramp-up was higher than the previous year, with Echizen Town reaching about ¥61,800 in December and Kyotango City about ¥43,600 in January. September–October levels in both towns were roughly the same as or below the previous year, so winter growth has not spilled over into autumn levels.
Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (estimated settled ADR, median across all property types, finalized months only; Kyotango City N=74–87, Echizen Town N=17–20)
Implications for Operators — Crab-Season Rate Design and Multi-Night Plans
To sum up, the density of crab mentions is largely explained by “inn size” and “the character of the town,” and the denser the town, the more sharply its winter rates decouple from autumn. There are three implications for operators. First, for cuisine-focused inns with around 10 rooms, crab is the product itself; at an inn where 70% of reviews talk about crab, the menu content (the size of the whole male crab served, the combination of grilled, boiled and sashimi, whether female crab is included) directly justifies the rate. The double-digit year-on-year rise in winter medians in Kami Town and Kyotango City shows that these inns still have room to link rates to the richness of their menus. A high mention rate is one of the few quantitative indicators that can be read from reviews to support pricing decisions.
Second, at onsen ryokan with many rooms the crab mention rate stays in the single digits, which can be read as headroom to strengthen crab plans. As the 108-room Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Yamashitaya (19.4%), the 40-room Kaishu (42.2%) and the 24-room Ryokufukaku (29.3%) show, putting crab forward as the “signature dinner” can make it a main review topic even at inns with more rooms. In onsen towns with large room bases such as Kaga and Awara, an effective approach is to clearly tier crab kaiseki as a premium plan and design products aimed at the eight weeks from November 6 to year-end, when both male and female crab are available.
Third, multi-night stays. The male crab season runs about four and a half months until March 20, and rates in Kyotango City and Echizen Town hold a plateau from November through February. Small inns have limited rooms, so beyond raising the single-night rate, offering multi-night plans that pair a second night with local-fish kaiseki or hot pot instead of crab can add winter revenue from the same rooms. In Tajima, a stay can also be built around comparing Kasumi-gani (season opens in September) with Matsuba-gani (opens in November). In a tally of published plan names, of 507 ryokan × crab plan names, 45% featured kaiseki courses, 22% seafood and 15% wagyu or branded beef — naming that adds a second main dish to crab accounts for a meaningful share — so there is still room to communicate multi-night stays and second-night menus through plan names. When November bookings actually move at Tajima inns is worked out backward from booking curves in Toyooka Ryokan Nov 21-23 Long Weekend: Day 1 95.7%, Final Night 85.5%.
For inns: plan-name tips for this theme
Most common selling points in published ryokan × crab plan names (N=507) —
Crab 90%Kaiseki course 45%Seafood 22%Wagyu / branded beef 15%Two meals included 11%Buffet 7%
Examples of actual names (anonymized, translated):
- [New: Drink-Inclusive] Free-flow drinks in the lounge & at dinner! A luxurious stay with a gourmet buffet of crab and beef steak
- [5% OFF] [Big Sale] [Family / Chef’s-Pick, 2 Meals] Octopus, crab… savor the northern sea’s bounty with a chef’s-choice menu
- [Last-Minute Deal] 10% off [No Crab] Special orders welcome ♪ Seasonal kaiseki dinner [All-You-Can-Eat Appetizers] *no crab
*These are trends based on a tally of published plan names and do not show that naming causes sales. For deeper analysis of markets × naming, see our naming benchmark and event articles.
Summary
Across eight prefectures, 361 inns have dinner crab mentioned positively in their reviews; 135 of them have a mention rate of 20% or more, and 122 of those are in Hyogo, Kyoto and Fukui. Mention rate is inversely correlated with inn size: the median is 37.9% at 10 rooms or fewer and 4.0% at 101 rooms or more. By municipality, all 34 inns in Kami Town are at 10% or more and 41 of 52 in Kyotango City are at 20% or more, with inns where “crab is the reason to stay” lining the Tajima, Tango and Echizen coasts. In those towns, winter estimated settled ADR relative to September 2025 reached 2.88x in Echizen Town, 2.32x in Kyotango City and 1.74x in Kami Town, with double-digit growth over the same period of the previous season. Ahead of the November 6 season opening, the crab mention rate can serve as a yardstick — for small inns and large properties alike — that links menu richness to rate design.
*The crab mention rate in this article is the frequency with which crab appears in reviews, not a rating or satisfaction score. Hyogo reached the 100-inn retrieval cap, so prefecture- and municipality-level counts should be treated as lower bounds. All estimated settled ADR figures are for finalized months; listed levels for future months are not used.
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References and Sources
- Fukui Prefecture Fisheries Division, “Opening of the Echizen-gani season” (opens 0:00 a.m., November 6)
- Tottori Prefecture, “Tottori Matsuba-gani” (2025 snow crab season opened November 6; Itsukiboshi grading criteria)
- Akita Sakigake Shimpo, “First auction as snow crab season opens” (November 6, 2025; Fukui seasons: females to December 31, males to March 20)
- Kyukamura Takeno-Kaigan press release (Kasumi-gani season September 1 – May 31)
- Kobe Shimbun, “First auction of Kasumi-gani” (September 2022, red snow crab season opening)
- Tabi-Mag, “November 6: Snow crab season opens” (closed seasons by sea area under MAFF ordinance)
- MetroEngines Research — estimated settled ADR by municipality (finalized months, September 2024 – February 2026); property master (room counts, locations)
- HotelBank Editorial Team research — NLP analysis of guest reviews (past 24 months; 361 inns in 8 prefectures, 164,943 reviews, 13,741 positive crab mentions); tally of published plan names (ryokan × crab, N=507)
■ Data sources
NLP analysis of guest reviews by the HotelBank Editorial Team (8 prefectures — Hyogo, Kyoto, Fukui, Tottori, Hokkaido, Niigata, Ishikawa and Shimane; past 24 months; 361 inns; 164,943 reviews), and MetroEngines Research estimated settled ADR by municipality (finalized months, September 2024 – February 2026) and property master (room counts, locations). Fishing seasons are based on published materials from Fukui and Tottori prefectures and news reports.
■ Calculation assumptions
Crab mention rate = number of reviews referring positively to dinner crab ÷ total reviews. Covered inns have 20+ reviews and 10+ positive crab mentions, up to 100 inns per prefecture. Winter estimated settled ADR is the simple average of monthly medians for November 2025 – February 2026 (3-month December–February average for the three Hyogo municipalities); September is the finalized September 2025 figure; the previous season was compared using the same month composition.
■ Limitations
The mention rate is a frequency of appearance, not a rating or satisfaction score. Hyogo reached the 100-inn retrieval cap, so prefecture- and municipality-level counts are lower bounds. For small inns with 20–81 reviews, a single review can move the rate by several points. Estimated settled ADR is an estimate derived by applying property-type factors to the lowest-plan level and differs from individual properties’ actual settled prices. The alignment between mention rates and rate movements is a correlation and does not indicate causation.