Hakuba, Japan
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At 5 p.m., the line outdoors Ohyokkuri has already begun to kind. The conventional izakaya, or pub, is so common that individuals begin ready outdoors for half an hour earlier than it opens to get a seat.
On the different facet of the village, skiers at the Après Bar sip beers and Aperol Spritz, making an attempt to not slip on the wood flooring of their ski boots as they dance to the loud music.
It’s a median night time out throughout the ski season in Japan’s Hakuba Valley, on the essential island of Honshu, outdoors the metropolis of Nagano. Sitting in the Japanese Alps, it’s made up of 10 ski areas, which have collectively grow to be a international ski vacation spot recognized for constant snow, tall mountains and a enjoyable environment.
The inflow of overseas guests, nonetheless, has not been totally welcomed by locals, who complain of drunk, rowdy vacationers.
Their complaints have been so sturdy that the mayor of Hakuba village, Toshiro Maruyama, has launched new fines aimed toward curbing the rise of delinquent habits. The penalties, which run up to 50,000 yen ($321), will come into pressure in July, and will be issued by police for offenses together with ingesting alcohol whereas strolling outdoors, being noisy at night time or setting off fireworks.
They are an extension of an ordinance put in place 10 years in the past banning such behaviors. Without penalties although, it had little affect. Maruyama says native companies petitioned him to introduce a punishment for these flouting the guidelines.
But not everybody agrees the fines are essential. Marcus Bauder, CEO of Hakuba Hospitality Group (HHG), a property administration firm that runs 10 accommodations and 13 eating places in the valley, in addition to managing non-public chalets and flats, tells NCS the subject is “overblown.”
“There are areas in Hakuba that in the wintertime, at night, it does get a bit louder and you have pubs and bars,” says Bauder. But “this is not unusual for any tourist town in the world. It’s not unique to Japan, it’s not unique to Hakuba.”
The similar goes for considerations round overtourism in the village.
“We’re far from it,” Bauder mentioned. “Christmas and New Year gets very busy, but the majority of the year there is no tourism, and we’re trying to build it up. If we send out the message that we have overtourism problems, I think it’s very wrong.”
A stroll by way of Happo-One, well-known for internet hosting occasions throughout the 1998 Winter Olympics, makes it straightforward to grasp each side’ opposing considerations. The city feels distinctly Western, and its famed powder makes it an interesting vacation spot for international vacationers.
However, the resorts have retained a lot of their Japanese attraction, whereas nonetheless catering to a Western clientele.
“Sometimes you forget you are in Japan, there’s so many Australians,” one Australian farmer on a ski vacation instructed NCS. The attraction, he mentioned, is the nightlife. While different resorts could be quieter and fewer Westernized, “there wasn’t much else to do once the sun set,” he mentioned.
At the similar time, Hakuba feels markedly quieter than ski resorts in the US or Europe. Whilst Hakuba skiers typically complain that ageing lifts and poorly thought-out runs can create the occasional bottleneck, queues are uncommon and on a median day, you’ll have a piste to your self.
But the rising quantity of skiers making the journey to Japan implies that Hakuba will solely get busier.
“The overtourism word is a bit difficult to explain,” Maruyama tells NCS.
It is not simply a query of numbers — 1,064,000 individuals got here to Hakuba to ski in 2025. However, Hakuba’s ski tourism peaked in 1992 with 2,785,000 skiers. The distinction, in line with the mayor, is that the guests in 1992 had been virtually all Japanese. These new guests are overseas, and there are considerations they’re driving up costs.
Most conventional minshuku, family-run inns, in Hakuba serve breakfast and dinner to visitors. However, the Western mannequin of consuming out for dinner has made eating places busier and dearer. Whilst the weak Yen implies that a ¥1,300 ($8.25) bowl of ramen seems like good worth to a vacationer, it is far too excessive for locals, says Maruyama.
The quantity of overseas vacationers visiting the small city in winter additionally implies that supermarkets and shuttle buses are sometimes crowded and noisy, a world away from the communal quiet of Tokyo’s subway.
And the pressure peaks at night time. Echoland, a nightlife space of Happo-One, is the place most of the issues occur, and native enterprise homeowners have complained about noisy, drunk vacationers.
Why extra vacationers want rescuing in Japan’s ski cities
Bauder agrees that there will be issues and says “businesses have a responsibility” to forestall the points in the first place.
Property costs have additionally gone up in Hakuba by 130% since the pandemic, in line with some sources.
But Bauder says that a lot of the progress in the resort city has been to the profit of Japanese hoteliers whose property worth has not elevated since the Nineteen Nineties. When Nagano received the bid to host the 1998 Winter Olympics, there was a flurry of building in the space and a high-speed prepare line was constructed, decreasing the journey time from Tokyo to round 90 minutes.
In Hakuba, which hosted 11 occasions, many accommodations took on money owed to pay for the work. But when the asset bubble burst in 1992 and actual property costs fell, they discovered themselves struggling to recoup their investments.
Though he declined to reveal particulars, Bauder mentioned that HHG lately bought a lodge in Wadano, an space of Hakuba, from a Japanese couple for 250 million yen ($1.6 million) that was price lower than 46 million yen ($300,000) earlier than the pandemic.
It is not simply foreigners shopping for costly property in the village. La Vigne, a new high-end condominium advanced, mentioned that 82% of its condos had been offered to Japanese consumers. The most costly offered for 270 million yen ($1.8 million).
Hakuba is one of many Japanese locations struggling to seek out a stability with tourism.
In the post-pandemic years, a regular stream of incidents stemming from overtourism has hit headlines, in every single place from Kyoto to Hokkaido. Most lately, a well-known cherry blossom pageant in Fujiyoshida, close to Mount Fuji, was cancelled following complaints of disrespectful vacationers.
The nation is extra common than ever. According to official stats, 42.6 million people visited in 2025, regardless of a slowdown in Chinese vacationers, who made up 26% of guests in 2025, on account of a diplomatic row between China and Japan over Taiwan. Tourism is now Japan’s second largest export, price 9.5 trillion yen.
The nation hopes to draw 60 million guests a 12 months by 2030.
Back in Hakuba, mayor Maruyama is grateful that vacationers help the native economic system, however says that the nationwide authorities provides little assist to areas coping with the destructive affect of too many guests.
He lately launched a lodge tax to assist fund public companies, like highway upkeep and native buses, which have come beneath pressure from the inflow of guests.
Bauder nonetheless criticized the implementation, saying it might drive away vacationers in the summer season months, an space the mayor is eager to develop. The ski season often begins in late November and ends in early May.
But if extra vacationers are coming to Japan, they should unfold out, says Maruyama, echoing tourism consultants who stress the want to draw guests to the nation’s lesser-known areas to ease the strain on common locations feeling the pressure.
At the second, there is little he can do.
“We have no gate,” he mentioned.
Ski tourism in Japan has “gone nuts” since the Covid pandemic, says Charlie Cohn who, alongside his brother Jake, runs Snowlocals, a journey company specializing in ski journeys to Japan.
The pair first got here to Japan in 2011. Jake was a skilled skier and, in return for a free carry go and a mattress, they made promotional movies for Japanese resorts. The nation was nonetheless recovering from the tsunami and resorts had been determined for vacationers.
Soon, the pair had a repute amongst pro-skiers for realizing the place to seek out good snow, and so they started their journey company. Initially, their prospects had been the most devoted of skiers, keen to sleep in a van. Now, Cohn says that they principally deal with high-end journeys.
The draw, he says, is the snow — “It’s giggling powder skiing all the time.”
Cold, dry air travels throughout Siberia and hits the Sea of Japan, the place it picks up moisture. As these currents go over Japan’s mountains, they convey snow, and plenty of it. Some resorts get round 15 meters a 12 months. The snow is so dry and light-weight that it is generally referred to as “cold smoke” for the plumes of snow that come off skiers and linger in the air.
Skiing in Japan is additionally nonetheless comparatively low-cost.
“If you were a family looking for a ski vacation to Telluride, you could fly to Japan at least for the same price, probably for less,” explains Cohn.
The resorts are uncrowded compared to US or European ones, although the infrastructure is typically dated. The highest carry in Niseko, a resort in Hokkaido common with foreigners, is a single-person chair whose sq. seats have earned it the nickname “Pizza Box.”
American and European skiers come to Japan particularly to ski deep powder in the bushes. In most Japanese resorts, these areas are off limits and roped off, however overseas skiers simply “duck the ropes,” say locals. Some resorts, like Rusutsu in Hokkaido, have begun permitting individuals to ski in the bushes, however most resorts have settled into an uneasy place of not permitting, however not actively stopping skiers from going off-piste.
However, over 80% of individuals needing rescue in the backcountry of Hokkaido this season have been foreigners, in line with officers.
A spokesperson for Hakuba Valley mentioned that with the improve in overseas vacationers, they’re “concerned” that the quantity of accidents might improve and they’re actively making an attempt to boost consciousness of the risks of snowboarding in the backcountry.
Why extra vacationers want rescuing in Japan’s ski cities
Cohn says there is a drawback with skiers going into the backcountry when “they don’t have the skills to be going where they’re going.” That is no completely different, he factors out, to the US or the Alps, and there are inherent dangers.
Speaking to vacationers round Hakuba, few had heard about the fines, and few companies gave the impression to be eager on telling their purchasers that there are additional guidelines they should comply with on their vacation.
There is a danger that introducing fines might ship a message to vacationers that they don’t seem to be welcome and encourage them to go elsewhere. Maruyama doesn’t disagree: “If these people move to other places, I think it’s not such a bad thing.”
Whilst Hakuba might need a repute for being full of younger rowdy vacationers, HHG mentioned that solely 22% of their visitors are beneath 25. Their greatest demographic, at 33%, is 36-45.
Despite the rising quantity of vacationers, Happo-One is quiet at night time. By 9 p.m., the skiers at the Après Bar have gone dwelling to take their boots off, and small teams of vacationers meander out of eating places. The queue outdoors Ohyokkuri has gone, and the “Closed” signal is already out.