Introduction Of oneself and asking for direction and to be hosted (question)

Could you further explain this custom? Is there a specific phrase you use in regard to this?

Japan is a very hospitable place, but to my knowledge, there's no institutionalized custom of opening their homes to lost strangers. I suppose it depends on where you are and who you encounter, though.

You would have to be lost in a very remote place in the middle of the night before asking a random stranger for refuge for the night will work in Japan.....and even then I wouldn't count on it.

Try that in town and kind people will point you toward a hotel, indifferent people will ignore you, and others may call the police on you.