I already have quite a bit of the property covered with landscape fabric, and it’s been working fabulous for a couple of years. I was about to buy a new brush cutter, and I realized for about the same cost I could just landscape fabric the rest of the property entirely. Save a lot of watering and cutting.
Any drawbacks?
I’m thinking just a bit more difficult to lay fertilizer, but not much.
Any erosion or cutting out “natural“ life etc by not letting the weeds and grass grow etc?
Are there voles in Japan? They just love it under the black ground cover here, for the first year or 2 at least until it settles and perennials die/stop sending up tender shoots for them to eat.
You could pull it up in the fall and let a winter cover crop grow, or put down compost if the soil gets depleted.
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I have a major mole infestation. Killed many plants. Only been able to catch maybe 7 over the years.
I usually pull up fabric areas with plants/trees every spring and add fertilizer.
No “biodiversity”, “breathing” issues, etc?
as it ages weeds grow through it so its a big pain to get rid of it at that point. only option then is to cover with more fabric. once you got it you’re stuck with it. wood chips are a great option and as it breaks down your soil gets improved. put some wine cap mushroom spawn under it and you will get mushrooms for many years as long as you put down fresh chips every spring. 
How big of an area are you talking?
I’ll second moose71 in that the weeds will eventually grow through the fabric. Especially if you’ve got anything that’s very tenacious. I like using the fabric for a few years around new trees but then I also like removing it and switching over to wood chips. I wouldn’t look at it as a permanent solution.
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If it is the ground cover material, which is woven like a tarp with small holes punched in it to allow water to go through, then pulling it up and flipping it over takes care of the weeds that grow in top. I’ve been doing that for at least 5 years now with the stuff I use for my container trees.
I don’t think it causes problems with breathing, water does tend to run off during heavy rain though. It is going to be bad for biodiversity, although grass isn’t all that great in the first place. If you are relying on beneficial insects it would make sense to have refuge areas with flowering plants, the nice thing would be that would be easier to establish after killing off grass and weeds with the fabric. Mowing in general is bad for beneficial insects so less area of unmowed beneficial plants might be better than more area of regularly mowed turf.