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>> About SnowJapan
>> Contact SnowJapan

Snow Japan first went online in the summer of 1999.  Back then, the creator of the site - who is still in charge of things today - had been living in the Yuzawa region of Niigata Prefecture for a number of years and was enjoying the huge amounts of snow that the region receives each winter.  (He's been here 18 years now).

It seemed strange that for such an excellent winter sports scene there was almost no information available in English.  After working in marketing for one of the ski resorts in the town, SnowJapan (originally known as Ski Japan Guide) was created... initially as a simple guide to the resorts in Niigata Prefecture.  The site proved popular and in those first few seasons online was expanded to include information from other prefectures and regions of Japan.

Right from the beginning SnowJapan has been totally independent.  That means that we are not trying to sell or push any particular region of Japan, any particular ski resorts, hotels, tour services or any other business to our readers.  It also means that no business or organisation has any say in the way that the site is run or influences our editorial in any way. 

The site has continued to grow rapidly each year and has many more people involved now and operates on a much larger scale than it used to.  We also have increasingly strong links with the ski and snowboard industry in Japan, at times consulting resorts and businesses on the "foreign market", but we highly value this independence and the basic concept of SnowJapan remains as it was when we first started out 11 years ago.

The other thing that we are keen to do is present the Japanese winter sports scene as it is.  Without any hype or too many exclamation marks!!!!!  A good example of this is our daily reports.  If it's raining and the snow conditions are bad (happily that doesn't happen very often), then that's what they'll report.  Apart from the fact that we don't think that Japan actually needs hype, that's not what SnowJapan is about.

What we are setting out to do is to bring truthful and detailed information about winter sports in Japan to the world and at the same time provide a place where like-minded people can gather and have fun.

>> Click here to read an interview with the creator of SnowJapan.

Please also read our  "START HERE" page for more information about the structure of the site and contents.

Send any mails and comments to editor@snowjapan.com or use this online form.