If you spend any time researching Japanese ski areas, there are some traditional words that you will regularly encounter. In recent years, however, some ski areas have moved away from these traditional naming conventions.
There has been an increase in the use of recognisable English phrases such as Ski Resort and Snow Resort, even at ski areas primarily aimed at the domestic Japanese market. Some ski areas have also experimented with English translations of their names. It can sometimes get a little confusing.
Here are a few of the names you are likely to come across.
Kogen
Examples:
Yuzawa Kogen
Shiga Kogen
Kurohime Kogen Snow Park
Kogen translates as 'plateau' or 'highland', and many ski areas use the word in their name.
Kokusai
Examples:
Joetsu Kokusai
Kusatsu Kokusai (now known as Kusatsu Onsen)
Kokusai means 'international', and many ski areas once used the word in their name. There are exceptions, but it appears that many adopted the term to project a particular image and seem more fashionable. Whether the atmosphere was quite as international as the name suggested is another question. Some ski areas still use the word today, while many have since changed their official name and no longer include it.
Onsen
Examples:
Nozawa Onsen
Zao Onsen
Hakuba Norikura Onsen
Onsen means hot spring. Many of the early ski areas in Japan developed in established hot spring towns and were named after their location. In the current SnowJapan database, 28 ski areas include the word onsen in their name.
Kokusetsu
Examples:
Bibai Kokusetsu
Kokusetsu Horotachi
Ski areas with kokusetsu in their name used to be much more common than they are today, though a few still remain. These ski areas were originally developed on national forest land with the cooperation of the government.
Snow Resort or Mountain Resort
Examples:
Maiko Snow Resort
Kandatsu Snow Resort
Mt Norikura Snow Resort
Madarao Mountain Resort
Tsugaike Mountain Resort
Kogen, Kokusai, and Onsen are traditional naming conventions for ski areas, whereas Snow Resort and Mountain Resort are more modern ones. That may help explain why some ski areas have recently renamed themselves to include these terms.
To translate or not?
On SnowJapan, we generally refer to ski areas by their established Japanese names.
The reason is simple: translating those names into English often creates awkward-sounding names. Using the established Japanese name tends to be clearer for everyone.
Yuzawa Kogen → Yuzawa Highland?
Joetsu Kokusai → Joetsu International?
Nozawa Onsen → Nozawa Hot Springs?
They may be reasonably accurate translations, but they are not the names that people actually use.
(And they sound odd!)
Capital letters
Some ski areas use capital letters as part of their official name. In some cases, the capitals represent an abbreviation or acronym. In others, there is no obvious explanation for the styling. Where we know the reason behind the capitalisation, we explain it in our introduction to that ski area.
On SnowJapan, we respect the official name used by each ski area, including its chosen capitalisation. As with translations and other naming conventions, we believe it is best to use the name by which each ski area identifies itself.
Consistency
Occasionally, things become even more confusing because a ski area uses more than one version of its own name, sometimes even on its own website. When that happens, we do our best to identify the most appropriate version of the name and use it consistently throughout SnowJapan.