Japan’s 24-25 Season Underway

Japan’s main ski season get underway at the weekend with many of the country’s leading resorts opening their initial terrain for 24-25.

Hokkaido’s Niseko, Sahoro and Rusutsu were among the areas opening alongside Nagano’s Shiga Kogen, Hakuba and Nozawa Onsen.

The news wasn’t all good though with a few centres deciding to delay their planned opening dates to next weekend due to inadequate early snow cover. It's a promising forecast for most for the coming week though.

Hakuba’s Tsugaike Kogen posted the deepest snow with 126cm (4.2 feet) lying up top for opening day.

Most only have a few kilometres of slopes open initially with Hakuba’s Happo One posting the most with 5km – about 10% of its full terrain.

Small ski areas had opened very limited terrain earlier in the autumn, using all-weather snowmaking machines, but it’s now that the country’s leading areas have joined them.

Hopes are high of a bumper winter for snow in Japan with the La Nina system in the pacific expected to mean below average temperatures and above average precipitation for the country this season.

Many of the country’s major centres aim to stay open for five months through to the country’s ‘Golden Week’ holiday period at the start of May next year.