The subject of this final paper was the hotel industry in Japan and in Western countries, using the USA as an example. This paper analysed and presented the beginnings and development of the hotel industry in the United States of America and Japan and finally, draw a conclusion based on a comparison and analysis of the two. It defined specific types of hotels in Japan, which consist of special accommodation facilities such as ryokan – traditional Japanese inn, minshuku – local farms that are a Japanese style of living, and accommodation in shukubo – accommodation in temples, love hotels and capsule hotels. This paper showed how the Japanese hotel industry consists of a series of traditions and a culture that has influenced the Japanese hospitality industry. The hotel industry and hotel innovations in the USA have contributed to tourism development in many countries because all large international hotel companies have expanded their business and standards to European countries. Despite its specific forms of tourism, Japan has westernized a large number of its hotels and hotel companies and adapted to Western ways of life, travel and hospitality. Research was based on the habits and wishes of Japanese tourists in Croatia and foreign tourists in Japan, as well as the awareness and perception of hotel employees about Japanese guests and specific types of hotels. The research methods were an interview with the travel agency UNILINE and a questionnaire in which 30 Croatian hotel employees participated. The results showed that Japanese guests are mostly just passing through Croatian hotels and that hotel employees are familiar with their needs, but not with the specific Japanese types of hotels. Foreign guests travel to Japan almost exclusively for leisure, usually independently and mostly stay in Western-type hotels. The expectation is that, in the future, the industry will expand and develop specific Japanese types of hotels because they suit European and Western lifestyles very well.