As the third generation of one of Japan’s most distinguished hospitality families, Joji Kanaya, CEO of Kanaya Hotel Kanko Group, carries forward a legacy whose roots stretch back to 1873, when Zenichiro Kanaya opened the Cottage Inn for foreign travelers in Nikko. Joji Kanaya became president of Kanaya Hotel Tourism Co. in 2011, continuing a tradition of hospitality that has evolved across generations while embracing the changing expectations of modern travelers.

At the heart of this heritage is Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel, selected by Luxury Lifestyle Awards as Best Luxury Hot Spring Hotel in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, 2026. Opened in 1978 and later reimagined around the concept of John Kanaya’s beloved “Villa in the Valley,” the hotel brings together Japanese tradition and Western sophistication, exceptional cuisine, private hot spring experiences, art, and the natural beauty of the Kinugawa River Valley. Its philosophy is reflected in an approach that preserves tradition while embracing innovation. Select guest rooms offer private hot spring baths, while the hotel’s dining experiences range from refined Japanese-Western cuisine to premium Wagyu teppanyaki.

Alexander Chetchikov, President of the World Luxury Chamber of Commerce, leads our exclusive interview. Drawing on more than 18 years of experience recognizing the world’s most distinguished luxury brands through the Luxury Lifestyle Awards, he brings extensive expertise and discerning insight into the evolving landscape of luxury.

 

Alexander Chetchikov:  The Kanaya family has been part of Japanese hospitality for more than 150 years, and you represent its Third generation. How has growing up with such a remarkable legacy shaped your personal understanding of hospitality, and what responsibility do you feel in carrying the Kanaya name into the future?

Joji Kanaya: Growing up in the Kanaya family, I never really thought about its 150-year history. It was simply part of my everyday life.

I think I began to understand its value only after I left Japan. Living abroad and studying hotel management in New York gave me a chance to see Japan and Kanaya from a different perspective. That was when I realized how unusual, and in many ways how forward-thinking, the Kanaya story really was.

In 1873, my family opened an inn to welcome foreign travelers to Japan. Years later, my grandfather, John Kanaya, found his own way of bringing Japanese and Western culture together. Both were quite bold ideas for their time.

So when I think about tradition, I don’t think it means simply preserving things as they were. For Kanaya, tradition has always meant being willing to look ahead and try something new. I believe that spirit is what has truly been passed down from one generation to the next.

As the third generation, what concerns me more than change itself is the possibility of becoming too comfortable with tradition and allowing it to become a reason not to change. 

I don’t feel that 150 years of history is something that holds us back. Quite the opposite. It gives us the confidence to think about what Kanaya should become next.

AC: Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel was conceived around the idea of John Kanaya’s beloved “Villa in the Valley,” combining the comfort and intimacy of a private villa with the refinement of a luxury hotel. What does this concept mean to you personally, and how do you ensure guests can genuinely feel it throughout their stay?

JK:  “Villa in the Valley” is more than just a concept for the hotel. To me, it reflects the kind of place my grandfather, John Kanaya, would have wanted to spend time in himself.

My grandfather had a very strong sense of what he liked and what he believed was truly good. He had a deep respect for Japanese culture, but at the same time, he was always open to the best of Western culture. That sensibility found its way into everything he created, from the food and interiors to the experience of Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel itself.

Even today, when I’m making a decision, I sometimes ask myself, “What would John Kanaya do?” But that doesn’t mean simply recreating what he did. I think the more interesting question is: if he were here today, what would excite him? What would he choose to do differently? What new ideas would he embrace? To me, thinking that way is a more meaningful way of carrying his spirit forward.

And if this is truly a “Villa in the Valley,” our guests should feel free to spend their time in their own way. They can enjoy the onsen, have a wonderful meal, look out over the Kinugawa Valley, or simply listen to the sound of the river and do nothing at all.

We’re not trying to impress our guests with luxury for its own sake. What matters to me is that, somewhere along the way, they begin to relax without even realizing it, and by the time they leave, they find themselves thinking, “I wish I could stay a little longer.”

That, to me, is what “Villa in the Valley” is really about. 

AC: The philosophy of “East Meets West” has been associated with the Kanaya hospitality tradition for generations. Today, this spirit can be experienced through the hotel’s architecture, service and particularly its Wakeiyosan cuisine, where Japanese culinary traditions meet Western influences. How do you preserve this philosophy while allowing it to evolve for a new generation of luxury travelers?

JK:  I don’t think of “East Meets West” as simply combining something Japanese with something Western.

For my grandfather, I don’t think what mattered most was whether something came from Japan or the West. What mattered was whether he found it beautiful, delicious, or simply enjoyable. That instinct became part of Kanaya’s identity, and it is still very much with us today.

“Wakeiyosan” comes from the same idea. It isn’t about adding Western elements to Japanese cuisine for the sake of being different. It’s about respecting the delicacy and traditions of Japanese cuisine while being open to Western techniques and ideas. Ideally, the result feels so natural that our guests don’t stop to ask whether a dish is Japanese or Western. They simply enjoy it.

My time abroad also taught me that authenticity doesn’t need to announce itself. You don’t have to try too hard to make something feel Japanese. If it is genuine, that character comes through naturally.

So for me, the goal is not to make Kanaya look more “Japanese” or more “Western.” It is to express what we genuinely believe is beautiful, delicious, and comfortable in a way that feels right for today.

Perhaps the best expression of “East Meets West” is when our guests no longer think about where the East ends, and the West begins.

It simply feels like Kanaya. 

AC: The onsen experience is central to Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel, from private hot spring baths available in select guest rooms to the contemporary Four Seasons Bath and the more traditional Ancient Cypress Bath. In an increasingly fast-paced world, what do you believe the Japanese philosophy of onsen can offer today’s international luxury traveler?

JK:  For Japanese people, onsen has never really been thought of as a special “wellness experience.” For generations, we have simply gone to hot springs with family or friends, soaked in the water, shared a meal, and slept. It has always been a very natural part of life.

But when I think about it today, perhaps that simplicity is precisely what makes it such a luxury.

In an onsen, there is nothing you need to accomplish. There is no goal, and there is no need to be good at it. You simply enter the water, look out over the valley, listen to the river, and notice the season around you. In our everyday lives, we are constantly trying to manage our time. In an onsen, we can simply let time pass.

I think there is something very Japanese in that.

For our international guests, I don’t think the onsen necessarily needs to be explained through the language of “wellness.” I would rather they simply experience it. Step into the water, do nothing for a while, and perhaps come out feeling a little lighter than when they went in. That is enough.

At Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel, our guests can experience onsen in different ways; from private hot spring baths in their rooms to our public baths, the Four Seasons Bath and the Ancient Cypress Bath. Each has its own character, but ultimately, what we want to offer is not simply the bath itself.

It is the freedom to do nothing.

And today, that may be one of the greatest luxuries of all.

AC: Personalization and emotional connection have become defining elements of modern luxury hospitality. Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel has received strong recognition for its service, including JTB’s “Excellent Service Ryokan” award in both 2024 and 2025. What is your philosophy for creating service that feels deeply personal while remaining authentically Japanese?

JK:  For me, hospitality cannot be measured simply by how much we do for a guest.

Of course, remembering a guest’s name or preferences is important. But those are things that can be recorded. What only a person can do is notice the expression on someone’s face or the tone of their voice and sense whether today is a day to start a conversation, or a day to simply let them enjoy the quiet.

There is a long tradition in Japanese hospitality of noticing what someone may need before they have to ask. But I don’t believe omotenashi means anticipating everything and doing as much as possible.

Sometimes you step closer. Sometimes you step back.

Knowing that distance, and being able to adjust it naturally, is very important to the way we think about hospitality at Kanaya.

Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel is, after all, our “Villa in the Valley”?a private retreat for our guests. If you were in your own villa, you probably wouldn’t want someone attending to you every moment of the day. You might find it rather exhausting. (laughs)

So I encourage our team to focus less on delivering perfect service according to a manual and more on paying attention to the person in front of them. Even the same guest may want something different today from what they wanted yesterday.

We are, of course, very grateful to have been recognized by JTB for our service in both 2024 and 2025. But our goal has never been to provide “award-winning service.”

If a guest leaves without remembering every detail of the service, or even the names of the people who looked after them, but simply thinks, “I’m not quite sure why, but I felt completely at ease at Kanaya,” then I think we have done something right.

Perhaps the best hospitality is the kind you hardly notice at all. 

AC: Dining is an important part of the Kanaya experience, from Wakeiyosan kaiseki at Dining John Kanaya to the newer Teppan Zendokoro Kanaya and its premium Wagyu experience. How do cuisine, local and seasonal ingredients, and the theatricality of dining contribute to your vision of luxury at Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel?

JK:  For me, one of the most interesting things about food is that it can give you a very immediate sense of where you are and what season you are in.

A dish served in Kinugawa in spring doesn’t need to be the same as one served in autumn. In fact, I think there is value in the fact that it isn’t. A flavor you can experience only in that place, at that particular moment, can become part of the memory of a journey.

At Kanaya, this doesn’t necessarily mean using the most expensive ingredients. Of course, we serve exceptional Wagyu and other premium ingredients, but simply putting expensive things on a plate does not make a meal luxurious. Sometimes a vegetable at the height of its season, grown nearby, can be the most memorable thing on the table.

To me, luxury is less about price and more about experiencing something that could only happen here and now.

At Kanaya, we offer two distinct dining experiences. Dining John Kanaya offers our own style of kaiseki, “Wakeiyosan,” while Teppan Zendokoro Kanaya offers a live teppanyaki experience.

With “Wakeiyosan,” as I mentioned when speaking about “East Meets West,” we don’t begin by drawing a line between Japanese and Western cuisine. We begin with what tastes good and how we can bring out the best in an ingredient. Ideally, what arrives at the table simply feels like Kanaya.

At Teppan Zendokoro Kanaya, the experience is much more immediate. The chef is right in front of you. You hear the ingredients on the grill, smell the aromas as they rise, and watch a dish come together. The guest and the chef share that moment. In that sense, the time spent creating the dish becomes part of the dish itself.

A meal disappears the moment it is eaten. And yet, strangely enough, it can be one of the things we remember longest about a journey.

Often, we don’t remember only what we ate. We remember who we were with, what we talked about, the aroma in the room, perhaps even what the valley looked like outside that evening.

If our guests leave Kanaya remembering not simply that they had an expensive meal, but that they had a wonderful evening, then to me, that is luxury.

AC: Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel is welcoming an increasingly diverse international clientele. As global travelers seek experiences that feel authentic to their destination rather than standardized luxury, how do you introduce the traditions of Japanese omotenashi to international guests while preserving the hotel’s distinctive cultural identity?

JK:  I don’t think Kanaya needs to change simply because we are welcoming more international guests. In some ways, I think the opposite is true.

If someone has traveled all the way to Japan, there is little point in giving them the same experience they could have at a luxury hotel anywhere else in the world. At the same time, I don’t think the answer is to create an exaggerated version of “Japan” just because it may be easier to recognize.

Having lived abroad myself, I’ve found that some of the most memorable moments in travel come not when a place adapts itself to you, but when you discover, “Oh, this is how things are done here.” 

Bathing in an onsen, spending time in a yukata, or eating ingredients that reflect the season are not things that Japanese people do as a performance or to impress others. They are simply part of our culture. At Kanaya, I would like our international guests to experience them in that same natural way, rather than as something staged especially for visitors.

Of course, cultural differences can sometimes create uncertainty. When that happens, I think our role is not necessarily to change the Japanese way of doing things, but to explain why we do them. Once you understand the meaning behind something, what first seemed unfamiliar can become one of the most interesting parts of the journey.

What we want to offer is not a version of Japan created for international visitors. We want them to experience the same things that generations of Japanese guests have valued at Kanaya.

And when they return home, if they remember not simply that “Japan was wonderful,” but that “Kanaya was different,” I would be very happy with that.

AC: When you look at how luxury travel is evolving, what do you believe the next generation of Japanese luxury hospitality should represent, and how do you hope Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel will contribute to defining it?

JK:   I think each generation of the Kanaya family has been quite different.

My grandfather, John Kanaya, had a strong appreciation for beauty, good food, and new cultures. My father, Terry Kanaya, the second generation, had an almost endless curiosity about food.

He was the kind of person who wanted to taste unusual things from all over the world, but could be just as genuinely impressed by something he picked up at a convenience store if he thought the quality was remarkable for the price.

To me, that is very Kanaya.

When people think of luxury, they often think of expensive or rare things. But I think what matters more is having the curiosity to say, “This is interesting,” “This is delicious,” or simply, “This is really good,” regardless of the price or where it comes from.

From John Kanaya to Terry Kanaya, and now to me, what has been passed down is not a manual for how to create the same hotel generation after generation. If anything, it is the opposite. It is the curiosity to keep looking, tasting, discovering, and bringing in something new when we believe it is good.

That is why I don’t want the next generation simply to preserve the Kanaya of today. What I hope to pass on is not a finished form of Kanaya, but that sense of curiosity.

Reaching the 100th anniversary of Kanaya Hotel Kanko in 2031 will, of course, be an important milestone. But to me, the more interesting question is what we do in year 101.

If a guest returns to Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel ten years from now and thinks, “This is still unmistakably Kanaya, but something feels different,” I would consider that a success.

And when the next generation eventually takes Kanaya forward, I hope they won’t hesitate to change the things I have created as well. If they can make Kanaya more interesting, they should.

To me, legacy is not about leaving the past untouched.

It is about leaving something that makes the next generation ask, “What should we do next?”

 

Thank you, Mr. Joji Kanaya, for sharing your perspective with us and for offering an inspiring insight into the heritage, philosophy, and future of Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel and the Kanaya tradition of Japanese hospitality.

Discover Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel and plan your stay. Visit the official Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel website today: https://kinugawakanaya.com/.