Comic Market 109 (C109), as announced on the official website of the Comic Market Preparations Committee, will run for three days from Tuesday, December 29 to Thursday, December 31, 2026 at Tokyo Big Sight. Within a 2km radius of the venue, only 6 properties with 3,360 rooms showed a selling price in the last three months — that is the full size of the closest pool available to absorb three year-end weekdays of attendee demand. Meanwhile, the estimated settled ADR for Koto-ku fell from ¥16,500 in November 2025 to ¥15,000 in December, so December is, as a month, cheaper than November. Yet when the listed rates of hotels within 2km of the venue are laid out day by day, December 29 last year was 1.6x a December weekday — only a few year-end days formed the peak of the month. This article overlays the room stock within 2km and 5km of the venue, Koto-ku’s monthly rates and December’s daily structure, and sets out where hotels have an opportunity in sales design for the three year-end days of the now three-day C109 and for the eve night of Monday, December 28.

C109 Dates and the Move to Three Days — Tuesday to Thursday, on Year-End Weekdays

First, let us pin down the calendar. The Comic Market Preparations Committee’s C109 event information sets the dates as Tuesday, December 29 to Thursday, December 31, 2026, with Tokyo Big Sight as the venue, and states clearly that “due to large-scale renovation work at Tokyo Big Sight, East Halls 4–6 cannot be used for C109.” Circles are allocated to East Halls 1–3, West Halls 1–2 and South Halls 1–2, and corporate booths to West Halls 3–4 and South Halls 3–4, and the event has been extended from the two days of recent editions to three. KAI-YOU (March 24, 2026) reported the decision as the first three-day event in eight years (since C95 in winter 2018), driven by an increase in circle applications and the reduction in halls due to the renovation. On the scale of the renovation, MONOist (August 2025) reported that in FY2026 East Halls 4–6 — about 25,000㎡, roughly 22% of the total floor area — will be unavailable, and that JIMTOF2026, held at the same venue, will take place under the same conditions.

Let us also note the scale of attendance. The Committee’s C108 After Report puts attendance at 130,000 on each of Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16, 2026. For the previous winter edition, C107 (December 30–31, 2025), we could not find an official Committee tally, so we rely on media reports: MOVIE WALKER PRESS (January 12, 2026) reported that “about 300,000 people attended over the two days.” Per day, there is no large difference between summer and winter; the significance of the move to three days lies less in total attendance than in each stay lengthening by one night. Whereas the two-day summer event centered on two nights — the eve (Friday) and day one (Saturday) — winter’s C109 creates up to three consecutive nights from the eve of Monday, December 28 to Wednesday, December 30, and the night of the final day, Thursday, December 31, overlaps with New Year’s Eve demand.

The bay area also hosts other large events in the same period. At Tokyo Big Sight, SEMICON Japan 2026 is held earlier, from Wednesday, December 9 to Friday, December 11, while at Makuhari Messe COUNTDOWN JAPAN 26/27 runs for five days — Saturday, December 26, Sunday, December 27, Tuesday, December 29, Wednesday, December 30 and Thursday, December 31 — fully overlapping with C109 on December 29–31. The venues and audiences differ, but as a bay-area lodging zone linked by the JR Keiyo Line and the Rinkai Line, the calendar puts two large events on the same three year-end days. How Koto-ku’s rooms filled during summer’s C108 is covered in our earlier booking-curve analysis, so this article focuses on the room stock closest to the venue and the structure of December rates.

Room Stock Within 2km of the Venue — 6 Operating Properties, 3,360 Rooms, 94% in Large Hotels

Room stock in this article covers lodging properties with 10 or more rooms (excluding leisure/love hotels) within a 2,000m radius of Tokyo Big Sight; “operating” means a selling price was confirmed on major booking sites in the last three months (September–November 2026) (as of November 4, 2026; compiled by MetroEngines Research).

On this basis, within 2km of Tokyo Big Sight the listed stock is 9 properties / 4,166 rooms, of which 6 properties / 3,360 rooms are operating. By segment, operating city hotels number 3 properties with 1,942 rooms and business hotels 3 properties with 1,418 rooms; by size class, the 5 properties with 201+ rooms hold 3,160 rooms, or 94% of operating rooms. It is a market made up of Ariake’s large hotels, with almost no small properties of around 100 rooms — the structural reason why attendee demand spills quickly beyond the ward and into the 5km zone. By opening period, properties opened in the 2020s are the largest group at 3 properties with 1,418 rooms, followed by 830 rooms opened in 1999 and 1,112 rooms opened in the 2000s.

The 368-room Daiwa Roynet Hotel Tokyo Ariake, about 0.5km from the venue, closed in March 2024, and the same building now operates as DoubleTree by Hilton Tokyo Ariake (363 rooms, opened/rebranded 2024), which Hilton’s “Company Overview” (updated August 25, 2026) lists as one of its 37 hotels in Japan (for the background, see our separate article). Table 1 lists the 6 operating properties in order of distance from the venue.

Table 1: Operating lodging properties within 2km of Tokyo Big Sight (by distance from the venue, as of November 4, 2026)

Source: MetroEngines Research; compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (as of November 2026) (within 2km, properties with 10+ rooms, excluding leisure hotels; the 6 of the 9 listed properties / 4,166 rooms with a selling price confirmed in the last three months)

Source: MetroEngines Research; compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (circle size = room count; the 6 operating properties within 2km)

Widen the radius to 5km and the picture changes. The listed stock becomes 165 properties / 29,422 rooms and operating stock 128 properties / 24,585 rooms, with business hotels taking over the lead at 84 operating properties and 15,161 rooms (Table 2). The zone takes in Odaiba, Toyosu, Shiomi and Shin-Kiba through to Shiodome, Hamamatsucho and Higashi-Ginza; large properties with 201+ rooms number 42 with 15,959 rooms and those with 101–200 rooms 45 with 6,503 rooms, so the range of price options widens sharply. This is where demand goes once the 6 properties within 2km are full, and for attendees staying three nights in a row, hotels along the Rinkai Line, Yurikamome and Keiyo Line are the realistic alternative.

Table 2: Stock by segment within 5km of Tokyo Big Sight (as of November 4, 2026)

Source: MetroEngines Research; compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (as of November 2026) (within 5km, properties with 10+ rooms, excluding leisure hotels; “operating” = a selling price confirmed on major booking sites in the last three months)

Let us also check supply over time. Annual stock within 5km (properties with a known opening year) grew from 85 properties with 17,746 rooms in 2017 to 113 properties with 23,426 rooms in 2020, reaching 136 properties with 25,490 rooms in 2026. Compared with winter 2019, when C97 ran for four days, there are about 5,000 more rooms. Properties opened in the 2020s are the largest group at 50 properties with 8,017 rooms, so the pool around the venue is new. The 7 properties with 393 rooms whose opening year is unknown are not included in the annual series.

Source: MetroEngines Research; compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (within 5km of Tokyo Big Sight; year-end stock of properties with a known opening year. The 7 properties / 393 rooms with an unknown opening year are not included)

Koto-ku’s December Rates — 9.2% Below November as a Month, and Lower Again in the New Year

Next, we look at rate seasonality month by month. Koto-ku’s estimated settled ADR (all segments, median) formed the year’s high zone in autumn at ¥15,800 in October 2025 and ¥16,500 in November, fell 9.2% to ¥15,000 in December, and dropped to ¥12,100 in January 2026 (N=41 properties). The prior year had the same shape: ¥13,800 in November 2024, edging down to ¥13,700 in December, and ¥10,600 in January 2025. Year on year, November 2025 was +19.6%, December +9.3% and January 2026 +13.8%, all up, but the ranking of the months does not change. Tokyo as a whole descends the same steps — ¥17,100 in November 2025, ¥15,800 in December and ¥13,200 in January (N=1,074 properties) — so December being cheaper than November is not unique to Koto-ku but a pattern common to central Tokyo, where business and MICE demand thins toward the last working day of the year.

In the most recent settled months, September 2026 was ¥14,300 (+12.4% YoY) and October ¥17,900 (+13.5% YoY), entering autumn above the prior year. November and December are estimated from listed levels at the time of the survey, at ¥20,200 (N=38) and ¥19,600 (N=37), but these are interim values that move as stay dates approach and are not used for year-on-year comparison with settled months. In the chart, November 2026 onward is shown as a dotted line.

Source: MetroEngines Research; compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (Koto-ku, median estimated settled ADR across all segments, N=33–42 properties. November 2026 onward is an estimate based on listed levels at the time of the survey)

For comparison, the same indicator for Mihama-ku, Chiba City — home to the COUNTDOWN JAPAN venue — went from ¥15,700 in November 2025 to ¥14,400 in December and ¥15,700 in January 2026 (N=12–13 properties): December is lower than November, but January does not fall. Makuhari is a venue location that forms a rate peak over the New Year holidays, and even with a large event in the same week, its monthly shape differs from Koto-ku’s.

December’s Intra-Month Structure — Daily Listed Rates at 6 Properties Within 2km; Last Year’s Three Year-End Days at 1.52x Weekdays

Even if December is a “cheap month” on a monthly basis, splitting it by day shows a different picture. For the 6 operating properties in Table 1, we calculated the listed rate per day (per room, 2 adults, all-plan average) and plotted the median from December 1 to January 5. December 2025 figures are the last listed level observed before the stay date; December 2026 figures are a snapshot as of November 4, 2026 (Figure 3).

In the December 2025 results, the weekday (Monday–Thursday) median averaged ¥27,200, Friday ¥28,000, Saturday ¥40,600 and Sunday ¥23,000 — a typical business-location weekly pattern in which only Saturday is high. Christmas, December 24–25, stayed at weekday level at ¥27,700, followed by ¥34,200 on December 26–27 (Friday–Saturday) and ¥30,600 on the eve, Sunday, December 28. Then the event days — Monday, December 29 at ¥43,600, Tuesday, December 30 at ¥41,500 and Wednesday, December 31 at ¥38,800 — formed the high zone of the month. The three-day year-end average of ¥41,300 was 1.52x weekdays, almost the same height as December Saturdays (¥40,600). C107 ran for two days, December 30–31, so December 29 was its eve, yet the eve night sold at the same level as the event days — an important clue for designing the eve night of Monday, December 28 for the three-day C109. After the turn of the year, January 1–5 fell to an average of ¥21,900, showing that among the weekdays after the last working day of the year, only the three year-end days stood out. This step-shaped daily pattern from December into January is not limited to Ariake: New Year 2026-27 Hotel Rates: Tokyo −22% Dec→Jan, Peaks in 5 Cities shows the same structure in five cities including Tokyo.

Turning to listings as of November 4, 2026, the December weekday median is ¥27,400 and Saturday ¥41,500, while the SEMICON Japan dates of December 9–11 are up at ¥37,900, 1.39x weekdays. At year-end, Saturday, December 26 is at ¥51,300, the eve, Monday, December 28, at ¥46,800, Tuesday, December 29 at ¥54,600, Wednesday, December 30 at ¥54,400 and Thursday, December 31 at ¥49,700; the 29th and 30th are 2.0x weekdays and positioned above December Saturdays. Saturday, January 2 is at ¥24,500 and the January 1–5 average is ¥22,300. However, these are listings eight weeks before the stay date, and can also be read as the stage at which properties set year-end rates high first and hold back inventory. The gap from last year’s final observation cannot be interpreted as a price rise as such and needs to be read together with booking pace from mid-November onward.

Source: MetroEngines Research; compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (the 6 operating properties within 2km of Tokyo Big Sight; property median of listed rates, per room, 2 adults, all-plan average. 2025 = last observation before the stay date; 2026 = listings as of November 4, 2026)

Table 3: Average daily listed rate (median) at the 6 properties within 2km, by period — December 2025 results vs. December 2026 listings

Source: MetroEngines Research; compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (per room, 2 adults, tax included, property median of all-plan averages. The SEMICON Japan period applies to 2026 only; the same 2025 dates are included in their day-of-week groups. In 2025, December 28 was a Sunday and December 29–31 Monday–Wednesday. vs. weekday = average of each period ÷ average of December weekdays (Monday–Thursday))

Booking Pace for December 29–31 — Observable from Mid-November; Koto-ku Weekdays in Sep–Oct: Tue 93.5%, Wed 95.6%, Thu 96.5%

As of writing (November 3, 2026), stays on December 29–31 are 56–58 days away, so there are not yet any observation points within LT45. For the Koto-ku property set, points within LT45 become available from November 14 for December 29, November 15 for December 30 and November 16 for December 31 (26 properties covered, listed on major booking sites). The comparison nights, Saturday, December 26 and Saturday, January 2, start from November 11 and November 18 respectively. The pattern in which city hotels build up occupancy in the 45 days before a major holiday is set out from measured Obon and September holiday data in New Year 2026-27: Take Dec 28 Off for 9 Days, Booking Pace from Nov 11. Observations beyond 45 days include the state before inventory has been loaded and do not represent booking pace, so this article does not use them; once observation begins, we will read them side by side with the surrounding weeks at the same LT.

Instead, let us confirm on which days of the week Koto-ku’s rooms are filling in the most recent settled months. Koto-ku’s occupancy across all segments (OTA-listed-inventory basis, estimated) stayed high, averaging 91.8% in September 2026 (27 properties / 7,557 rooms covered) and 96.2% in October (28 properties / 6,780 rooms covered, count on the first day of the month). Averaging September–October by day of week gives Monday 90.9%, Tuesday 93.5%, Wednesday 95.6%, Thursday 96.5%, Friday 93.7%, Saturday 96.5% and Sunday 90.8%, with Thursday level with Saturday. It is a location with deep exhibition and business demand, a ward whose rooms fill on weekdays from Tuesday to Thursday. C109’s Tuesday, December 29 to Thursday, December 31 falls on this ward’s strongest days of the week on the calendar, but after the last working day of the year business demand drops out, so in a normal year the weekday peak disappears in this period. That last year’s listed rates for December 29–31 were in the month’s high zone shows that the demand from a two-day event alone was thick enough to more than fill the gap left by business demand.

In the same week, COUNTDOWN JAPAN 26/27 also runs at Makuhari Messe on December 26, 27, 29, 30 and 31. The two venues are linked by the JR Keiyo Line and the Rinkai Line, and their lodging zones partly overlap around Shin-Kiba and Maihama. Mihama-ku, Chiba City has December rates below November that do not fall in January, a different seasonality from Koto-ku, but with large events running at both ends of the bay on December 29–31, the eastern side of the 5km zone (Shiomi, Shin-Kiba, Toyocho) sits where both sources of demand cross. Here too, once observation within LT45 starts in mid-November, daily progress should be checked alongside the Makuhari side.

Opportunities for Operators — Designing Multi-Night Stays from the Eve of Dec 28, and Selling Dec 31 Separately

Based on the above, we set out the opportunities for hotels around the venue over the three year-end days. First is the positioning of the eve night of Monday, December 28. Last year, the event eve of December 29 sold at the same level as the event days, and with the event now running three days, the eve moves to Monday, December 28. In listings as of November 4, the 28th is placed one notch below the 29th (¥54,600) at ¥46,800, but attendees who arrive the night before to make the day-one opening exist regardless of the number of event days. By treating the eve night as the start of a multi-night stay like the 29th and putting out three-night (28th–30th) and four-night (28th–31st) plans early, there is room to add revenue on a Monday, normally a weak day.

Second is setting minimum lengths of stay. The zone within 2km is small at 6 properties with 3,360 rooms, five of them large properties with 201+ rooms, so the risk that single-night bookings fill only the high-priced nights of December 29 and 30 first, leaving the 31st and 28th behind, is greater than the risk of leftover inventory from requiring two or more nights. The result from summer’s C108, when the final-day Sunday night reached only 82.1% as of the previous day, short of a normal Sunday (our earlier article), shows that the night of the closing day switches to “post-event” demand. A two-tier design is reasonable: make two or more nights the basic condition for arrivals on December 29 and 30, and accept December 31 arrivals on their own as separate New Year’s Eve demand.

Third is how to sell the night of Thursday, December 31. Within 2km last year, the listed rate on December 31 (¥38,800) was lower than on the 29th and 30th, and in this year’s listings the 31st (¥49,700) is also below the 29th and 30th. Final-day attendees head home after closing, and New Year’s Eve lodging demand moves on different motives, such as views over Odaiba and Toyosu or the first sunrise of the year. For city hotels overall, New Year 2026-27 Japan Hotel Rates Peak Dec 31: City 4 Days vs Onsen 8 shows that the peak of year-end/New Year rates falls on December 31, and the shape within 2km of Ariake, where the 29th and 30th are the highest, differs from that. Taking the night of the 31st out of the multi-night conditions and selling it as a New Year’s Eve stay plan combined with meals or late check-out offers a larger opportunity on both rate and occupancy.

Fourth is when to decide. Booking pace within LT45 becomes visible from November 14–16; before that, comparing the pace of the Saturday, December 26 and Saturday, January 2 nights (observed from November 11 and 18) at the same LT makes it possible to read the relative pace of the three year-end days. Since the early stage of setting rates high and holding back inventory is common to many properties, the decision to tighten multi-night conditions and minimum stays can be made once it is confirmed in mid-November that pace is faster than on the surrounding Saturdays. Conversely, if pace stays at Saturday levels, there is more opportunity in adjusting the rates of the eve night and the 31st first to lengthen stays.

Finally, the spillover into the 5km zone. While the pool within 2km is 3,360 rooms, attendees who stay overnight among the 130,000–150,000 daily visitors (C108 and C107 results) spread from the large hotels of Odaiba, Toyosu, Shiomi and Shin-Kiba out to Shiodome, Hamamatsucho and Higashi-Ginza. Business hotels account for 84 properties and 15,161 rooms of the 128 operating properties and 24,585 rooms within 5km, so the higher rates rise next to the venue, the more demand flows to hotels along the rail lines. Our separate article comparing supply around exhibition venues and occupancy lift during events across six venues, and another measuring the room count within 1km of international conference and exhibition venues, show the structure of the same zone from different angles. For hotel locations on reclaimed land, including Ariake and Makuhari, see also our article on liquefaction risk.

Summary

C109 runs for three days, Tuesday, December 29 to Thursday, December 31, 2026, at Tokyo Big Sight excluding East Halls 4–6. Operating rooms within 2km of the venue are few at 6 properties with 3,360 rooms, five of them large properties with 201+ rooms, so attendee demand spills early into the 5km zone (128 operating properties, 24,585 rooms). Koto-ku’s estimated settled ADR went from ¥16,500 in November 2025 to ¥15,000 in December and ¥12,100 in January 2026: as a month, December is cheaper than November. Yet in daily listed rates within 2km of the venue, December 29–31 last year formed a Saturday-level peak at 1.52x weekdays, before falling to ¥21,900 after the New Year. This year, with the three-day format stretching stays to up to four nights from the eve of Monday, December 28, the pattern in which only a few year-end days form the month’s peak turns into room for extra revenue, depending on how multi-night conditions and minimum stays are designed. Booking pace within LT45 for stays on December 29–31 can be observed from November 14–16. Hotels should compare it with the surrounding Saturdays at the same LT, confirm the pace, and then decide whether to tighten multi-night conditions or move the rates of the eve night and the 31st first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. When and where is Comic Market 109 held?
A. For three days, Tuesday, December 29 to Thursday, December 31, 2026, at Tokyo Big Sight. According to the Committee’s notice, East Halls 4–6 cannot be used due to large-scale renovation work; circles are placed in East Halls 1–3, West Halls 1–2 and South Halls 1–2, and corporate booths in West Halls 3–4 and South Halls 3–4.

Q. How many hotel rooms are there around the venue?
A. Within a 2km radius of Tokyo Big Sight, 6 lodging properties with 3,360 rooms showed a selling price in the last three months; within 5km, 128 properties with 24,585 rooms (properties with 10+ rooms, excluding leisure hotels, as of November 4, 2026, compiled by MetroEngines Research).

Q. Are hotel rates in Koto-ku high in December?
A. On a monthly basis December is cheaper than November: Koto-ku’s estimated settled ADR fell from ¥16,500 in November 2025 to ¥15,000 in December. However, in daily listed rates within 2km of the venue, December 29–31 last year formed the month’s peak at about 1.5x a December weekday.

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