Updated on 8th October: Snow Park Yeti opening date confirmed
As in recent seasons, SnowJapan will once again be making daily checks on early ski area openings from late October through mid-December 2026. It’s always an exciting time of the year, even if most ski areas in Japan only open much later in mid to late December!
The early openings will be covered in this news topic.
The first three that plan to open are as follows, all with artificial snow:
Snow Park Yeti (Shizuoka): Friday 23rd October 2026
Sayama (Saitama): Friday 30th October 2026
Karuizawa Prince Hotel (Nagano): Saturday 31st October 2026
The following ski areas have announced planned opening dates in the first half of November:
Gransnow Okuibuki (Shiga): Friday 13th November 2026
Shiga Kogen Kumanoyu (Nagano): Saturday 14th November 2026
Shiga Kogen Yokoteyama (Nagano): Saturday 14th November 2026
We will be adding planned opening dates and updating them as actual openings are confirmed. From later this month we will be checking information every day and updating this page regularly. In previous seasons, we have found ourselves making changes multiple times on some days!
In the meantime, you can check the actual opening dates of ski areas around Japan over the last five seasons here:
Ski areas usually try to open around the same time each season, so these dates can be used as a rough guideline as to what to expect.
We should be able to ski and snowboard by the end of this month... but don't expect natural snow!
Also, please be sure to check out our Guide page regarding the ski season in Japan: