With international tourists still absent, Japan’s ski resorts dig deep

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With international tourists still absent, Japan’s ski resorts dig deep

The ongoing pandemic could be the final blow for operators as memories of the ski boom — and bust — of the 1980s still linger

Yojiro Fukushima, director of the Tourism Commission of Hakuba Village, says just 800,000 or so guests visited Hakuba during the winter of 2020-21, which amounts to less than half of what the area had received in pre-pandemic times. | OSCAR BOYD

By Francesco Bassetti and Oscar Boyd
Contributing/staff writer

Jan 24, 2022

Hakuba, Nagano Pref. – Ask any skier or snowboarder for their list of must-visit winter destinations, and Japan will invariably feature.

“Nowhere in the world is there snow quite like it,” says a skier at the Hakuba Happo-One ski resort after more than 1 meter of snow fell in 48 hours during the opening week of January. “It’s fast, deep and just keeps coming.”

With mountains covering more than 70% of the country and some of the world’s heaviest snowfall, skiing is both an integral part of Japanese culture and a magnet for winter sports enthusiasts.