Ski areas
Discover the ski areas of Japan
Japan has just under 500 operating ski areas, ranging from large modern resorts with extensive facilities to tiny local hills with older lifts.
Some ski areas increasingly attract international visitors and actively cater to them, creating a distinctly international atmosphere. Many others are mainly used by nearby residents and are still largely undiscovered by overseas visitors, giving a more traditional Japanese feel.
In this section, we introduce every ski area in detail through our constantly updated database built over nearly three decades. You can explore and compare ski areas across Japan using our search and filter tools, interactive charts, and maps. Additional visual charts and maps are also available on each prefecture listing page.
Whether you’re new to Japan or a long-time SnowJapan user, explore our recently rewritten Guides section for an introduction to winter sports in Japan, and visit our About section to learn more about SnowJapan and what this independent website stands for.
Search tools
Over the years, we’ve seen that people look for ski area information in different ways. Some know exactly which ski areas or towns they’re interested in, while others prefer to explore and discover new options. SnowJapan offers many different ways to search and explore ski areas in Japan, with each tool designed for a different way of exploring—from simple lists to more detailed, sortable views that let you compare and filter results.
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Browse all ski areas in Japan, then filter by prefecture and compare sortable stats.
Filter ski areas using region selection and detailed specs such as elevation, vertical, lifts and courses. Results update automatically and can be sorted.
Browse ski areas within a prefecture with key specs included for each result.
Interactive charts
Ski areas in each Prefecture
The links below explore the ski areas in each prefecture of Japan. You can filter the results by town and, in some cases, by popular regions that span multiple towns or are more widely recognized than individual municipalities. Ski areas can also be sorted by a variety of criteria, including name, maximum and minimum elevation, vertical drop, number of lifts, number of courses, and steepest gradient. Each page includes an interactive map to help you find and explore all ski areas within the prefecture.
Popular ski regions of Japan
The links below introduce multi-resort regions, well-known ski areas, and individual ski resorts. In some cases, the destination name is different from the name of the town or towns where it is located. These independently compiled 'popular region' lists are not official, definitive, or exhaustive, and are subject to ongoing review and adjustment. We recommend using them only as a starting point and encourage readers to explore additional information available elsewhere on SnowJapan.
Insights
The Insights section features hundreds of interactive charts, graphs and visualisations based on original SnowJapan data. The chart opposite, comparing the number of ski areas and ski lifts in each prefecture, is just one example. Explore the full collection in the dedicated Insights section.
Japan ski area season dates
Most ski areas in Japan aim to open and close around similar dates each season, though snowfall naturally has a major impact on actual timings.
The charts below show the confirmed first and last days of recent ski seasons, as well as season length, at individual ski areas across Japan. All data is collated and manually checked by SnowJapan, and is also available on each ski area information page.
Inactive ski areas
This section introduces ski areas that have recently closed, or are currently closed where the status remains unclear. It helps document a grey area between active ski areas and those that are no longer operating. As these are not actively operating, they are not included in the active ski area database or in the statistics published on SnowJapan.
Japan's ski areas from the past
Looking for a ski area, but still can't find it?
There have been more than 900 individually named ski areas in Japan over the years, and almost half are no longer operating.
SnowJapanHistory was started in 2021 and documents former ski areas around Japan. More than 300 are currently listed on the site, with additional ski areas still being added.
