At the beginning of the 20th Century, people living in the mountainous regions of the prefectures on the Japan Sea coast were already using primitive "skis" to get around. They were instinctively using long pine skis to move around on and bamboo poles used for balance. Enjoyment and sport was far from these people's minds as they tried to survive in areas where accumulated snow of up to five or six meters was not uncommon.

The thought that this form of transportation could actually be a leisure activity (and big business) arrived here when an Austrian gentleman named Hannes Schneider introduced more developed skis (which were lighter and complete with primitive bindings) to Japan in the 1930's. Mr. Schneider, complete with his expensive three-piece suit (worn at all times - even coming down the slopes), impressed all around him. This marked the beginning of the first "skiing boom" in Japan.

Japan has no shortage of mountains, which account for over 80% of the land, providing what must have seemed like endless opportunities to enjoy this new "sport". Business soon took hold of the ideas and began to develop some of the slopes in the snowy mountain regions of Honshu and Hokkaido. Ski resorts suddenly appeared all over Japan, and some of today's best resorts had their beginnings around that time. The World War halted the popularity of the sport, but skiing started to develop again in the 1950’s when foreigners from Tokyo would head out to visit the resorts concentrated on the island of Honshu. It was in 1956 that one of the great heroes of Japanese skiing to this day, Chiharu "Chick" Igaya won the first Winter Olympics medal by finishing second in the slalom at the 1956 games in Cortina, Italy.

Although the sport developed slowly, in 1972 the Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo at the Teine Olympia and Teine Highland resorts. Twenty-six years later, the Olympics returned to Japan - for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics - and were a huge success.

Japan is now on the winter sports map and every year host world-class events such as World Cup ski jumping, alpine, Nordic, freestyle and snowboarding events.

Skiing had gained in popularity, but it was still seen primarily as a foreigner’s pastime. That quickly changed in the 1980’s. The eighties arrived and brought with it dramatic winter (and some would say "over the top") resort development. Attractive new resorts appeared at an astonishing rate, and many of the existing resorts were either rebuilt or expanded. Modern high-speed quad lifts, gondolas and ropeways were built, leaving Japan with some of the finest and most modern facilities in the world. With all this development and a carefully cultivated image, skiing became very fashionable and the thing to be seen doing. Designer outfits with bright colors and fur-lined hoods were flying off the shelves. A romantic weekend at one of the more fashionable resorts was something others dreamed of - the fact that the resorts were frustratingly busy, leaving little time for actually skiing, was not the point - being there and part of it was.

The late 1980's "ski boom" meant that the popular resorts became almost unbearably busy, with long queues waiting for lifts and bottlenecks on the slopes. The craze went as far as some businessmen taking the first train out of Tokyo in a morning, skiing for a few hours and then taking the train back to Tokyo in time for work. In the early 1990’s skiing was the most popular sport in Japan among young people.

But as the economic bubble burst, the number of people trekking out to the mountains every weekend started to decrease, and many of the resorts started to get nervous about their huge investments.

Then snowboarding appeared.