Asia Weekly Roundup #270

Big Names Open for Japan's Ski Season Despite Mixed Conditions

• Major ski resorts in Japan, including Nozawa Onsen, Niseko, and Hakuba’s Happoo One, have opened initial terrain despite some delayed starts due to insufficient snow coverage.
• Snowfall of up to 20cm (8 inches) last Friday and subzero temperatures have supported snowmaking, though some resorts like Kiroro remain partially closed to the public.
• The forecast for northern Japan looks promising, with heavy snow and consistently subzero temperatures expected, dropping to as low as -15°C in the coming days.

JAPAN REPORT

Japan’s ski season proper got underway at the weekend with big names including Nozawa Onsen (0/50cm / 0/20”), Niseko (20/80cm / 8/32”) and opening their initial terrain and Hakuba’s Happoo One (40/125cm / 16/50”), Initially, Nozawa just opened its D Course up at Yamabiko. Some centres announced delayed openings though, blaming inadequate snow cover with Kiroro Resort one of them, opening a few runs for its Club Med customers but keeping the rest of the resort closed to the public. The weather across Japan’s snowfields has varied through the week with periods of subzero temperatures overnight allowing snowmaking and there was another 20cm (8”) of snowfall for many last Friday night.

JAPAN FORECAST

It’s looking good for the rest of this week and into the weekend for northern Japan with heavy snow forecast and consistently sub-zero temperatures, day and night, down as low as -15C expected at times.