Hostels in Japan and Bed bugs...

Bed bugs don't have a higher occurrence in hostels than hotels. You are just as likely to find them at a 5 star hotel as a 0 star hostel. In all my decades of travel, I have only encountered bed bugs 3 times. The first time in a hutong hotel in Beijing. That bed bug had last since perished as was just a tried out hulk. I found it while I was doing my standard bed bug inspection in any room. Once was in a hotel in Mendoza. That was was weird. I didn't find any or signs of any during the inspection. That night sitting on the bed I saw 5 of them crawling towards me. They must have been in the frame. The last time was in a guest house in Kuala Lumpur. I found them during the initial inspection. I peeled back the lip of the mattress and there was a whole gang of them.

So IMO, the whole bed bug thing is way blown out of proportion. Only 2 living bed bug encounters in decades of travel with hundreds of hostel/hotel stays. If your dad is concerned, you can take steps when you come home. Bag everything while in the garage including the clothes on your back. Then head in for a hot shower. Then process your belongings. Wash the clothes and most importantly dry them bone dry. It's the heat from the drier that kills the eggs, not the washing. Either carefully inspect everything else or let time do it's work. Contrary to popular conception hat bed bugs can last a year and half without food or water, that's only under ideal conditions at low temperature. Bed bugs in normal human comfortable conditions die in a few weeks. Just keep everything bagged and toss them into a warm spot and let any possible ones die.

I took these precautions for years. Never found bed bug in my stuff. I've stopped doing it.

Hostels in Japan fear of your(you and other foreigners ) bringing bed bug from your country!

So if you want to avoid bringing bed bug to yor home 100%, you had better not stay at hostel where many foreigners stay but stay at hotel or ryokan where Japanese only stay!!

That's poor advice. Since based on reports by extermination companies, they treat more apts/houses than they do hostels or hotels. It's more common at home than at a hotel. Why? Because hotels and hostels are hip to it and take precautions. Many hostels I stay in take even more precautions than hotels. Including the use of full mattress encasements. The hostel I stayed in this week in Japan had the mattresses fully encased to discourage bedbugs.

I just checked the bedbug registry for Kyoto and Tokyo. While the data is admitted sparse, not a single report in a hostel. Just hotels and ryokans.

I've stayed at many hostels in Japan, and have never encountered bedbugs. But bedbugs do exist, just about everywhere in the world, so I'm sure there is a small chance that you will encounter them. If you're not going to travel because of the chance you'll find bedbugs in a Tokyo hostel though, you probably shouldn't travel at all....

I've never had a bed bug problem in Japan ever. Nor have I ever heard of any problems here while I've been living here. Its not something I would worry about.

Even in poor and less hygienic countries such as India, Peru or Nepal, bed bugs are rare.

I have slept in the same bed as my husband in guest houses. He got bitten, I had not as much as a little nibble.

In a decade of travel, hundreds of hotels. I found bedbugs once in Hong Kong.

They didnt follow me, and that was the last I saw of them.

As above.....I guess I've stayed in maybe a thousand different places or more..from hostels to hotels and all other types of accommodation,and have very,very rarely seen a bedbug.

Yes,they exist.Also in Japan,though I've never seen one there.But your chances of seeing one are very,very low....