Why Did This Japanese Hotel Suddenly Cancel 180 Weddings?

Japan’s first-ever full-service wedding venue suddenly announced it’s closing — and 180 couples are wondering what to do.

Wedding days can be the happiest time of one’s life. They can also be a giant ball of stress that feels like it’s rolling down a hill like an avalanche. For 180 couples in Japan, that avalanche feeling must have skyrocketed this month when they learned their weddings were in jeopardy.

Hotel Gajoen (雅叙園; gajouen) in Tokyo’s Meguro City made the shock announcement a few days ago, according to NHK. The hotel suddenly declared that it would close at the end of September and that all weddings scheduled from October 2025 onward would be summarily canceled.

The reason? Gajoen says their contract with their current building has expired. The hotel continued booking weddings even though it didn’t have a new contract in place. In letters to customers, the company chalked the closure up to “remodeling.”

Gajoen says it will refund customers’ 200,000 yen (USD $1,340) application fees and give them 100,000 yen ($670) as an inconvenience fee.

The hotel has operated in Tokyo since 1928, moving from its humble beginnings as a luxury restaurant to its current location in Meguro. It was Japan’s first-ever integrated hotel and wedding resort.