Japan closed a century-old prison in 2017; its cellblocks have now become a luxury hotel where guests pay to sleep behind the original walls

If you have dreamt of visiting castles, lighthouses and treehouses, Japan just upped the ante. According to Forbes, Japan’s Nara Juvenile Prison, originally called the Nara Prison, which was shut down after over 100 years in 2017, reopened on June 25, 2026, as a luxury hotel, HOSHINOYA Nara Prison, a Hoshino Resorts project, in which guests sleep in completely renovated prison cells.

The heritage project is much more than an Instagram-worthy makeover; it raises an uncomfortable yet intriguing question: can the same place meant for punishment become one for pleasure without erasing its history?

From prison yard to five-star stay


Completed in 1908 during Japan's Meiji era, Nara Prison was one of the country's famed "Five Great Prisons," designed by architect Keijiro Yamashita as Japan modernized its correctional system. In 1946, the prison became known as Nara Juvenile Prison, providing education and rehabilitation to inmates for more than 70 years. It was remarkably preserved and designated as a National Important Cultural Property before closing in 2017.

Over the course of several years, the HOSHINOYA Nara Prison was restored to perfection, and a few days back it opened to visitors, not prisoners. Additionally, an adjoining Nara Prison Museum opened slightly earlier on April 27, 2026. Its 48 all-suite guestrooms have merged 9 and 11 original prison cells, depenand the various original features of the corridors, doors, vaulted ceilings, observation towers, and its iconic radial layout ding on the room category. have been preserved. The outcome is not quite a prison-themed hotel, but rather a haven where you sleep exceptionally well.

Luxury cannot rewrite history, but frames it

One might think that this is another gimmick from the tourism industry. After all, the hospitality sector has barely feared selling unusual experiences. But the way HOSHINOYA does it is quite sensational. The correctional history of the site and the Japanese penal system are preserved inside the Nara Prison Museum, which occupies an extended portion of the hotel. The visitors are encouraged to engage with the complex legacy of the place, rather than just take photos of it.

The public areas feature a spacious Main Lounge, which has an open ceiling, exposed beams, European-style furniture, a curated library, and a complimentary tea service throughout the season. The central part of the complex features a geometrically designed courtyard with individual terraces and is illuminated at night. Aperitifs and evening drinks can be enjoyed in the Dining Lounge facing the courtyard, and there is also a separate dining house for semi-private meals with the “Gastronomy Chronicle" tasting menu tracing the evolution of French cuisine in Japan.

That distinction matters. Adaptive reuse is often seen as a sustainable approach in architecture. Developers are not tearing down historic structures, but are finding new uses for these structures while maintaining their cultural identity.

Why do we find prison hotels so fascinating?

Prison hotels are in a kind of cultural sweet spot for the travel buffs. It has long been a tradition across the globe to convert old jailhouses into boutique hotels, museums, and restaurants: from Boston’s The Liberty Hotel built on the Charles Street Jail and The Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet set inside the Sultanahmet Jail, to the Malmaison Oxford in the United Kingdom housed within the historic prison at Oxford Castle.

They are not only novel and unique, but also full of stories, as travelers look for places with some roots in history and not merely interchangeable luxury. Nara Prison provides just that. The building’s original materials and layout help preserve its institutional history. All of the hallways had a function. Even the guestrooms are in their original proportions, with a small nod to visitors that comfort is literally standing on confinement.

The ethics of sleeping where others suffered

The project, however, poses valid concerns. Where do preservation and commercialisation meet when the sites of incarceration become luxury destinations? The argument is much broader than that of Japan. Ex-prisons, psychiatric facilities and military bases can become tourist attractions; with careful planning, they can also be preserved and made accessible to the public.

The HOSHINOYA Nara Prison is aware of this balance. It does not romanticize imprisonment, but it does seek to reflect upon and conserve the architecture by educating one about its history. In an interview via Monocle, the CEO of Hoshino Resorts, Yoshiharu Hoshino, while talking about transforming the Yokohama city hall into OMO7 Yokohama hotel, said, “I’m fighting against design driven by space efficiency. One of the best ways is to use old buildings and give them new value.”

Checking into the past

It is not just the thread count that's gaining popularity; it's destination places with stories. The hotel is Nara's newest luxury boutique hotel and provides all of that: impeccable Japanese hospitality, a discussion about memory, architecture and the unanticipated lives of historic buildings.

Visitors may be drawn more to the building itself than to the beds. Maybe that's the best thing about the project. Prisons are designed to remind people who they are. One hundred years later, this same one still does, but this time instead of it being about confinement, it's about what societies choose to preserve, reinterpret, and carry forward.