Mon, Feb 17, 2003 page12

• Japan's ski industry quickly goes downhill

  • AFP
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  The Ski Dome on the outskirts of Tokyo was a symbol of Japanese exuberance in the 1980s.

  But the world's largest indoor ski resort closed last September, illustrating the collapse of an industry which is turning to snow fanatics from China and South Korea for support.

  Official statistics speak for themselves. Japan saw around 10.8 million skiers in 2001 compared with a peak of 18.6 million in 1993, just after its speculative bubble economy burst.

  Even when the 5.3 million snowboarders who took to the slopes in 2001 are included, the popularity of winter sports has clearly gone downhill.

  "There are fewer children so less people start skiing," said Wataru Tanabe, secretary general of the Hokkaido Ropeway and Lift Association, in the northern region of Japan.

  "The younger generation for example spends more time and money on mobile phones," or PC and video games, Tanabe said. "Also because of the recession, people have shifted their priorities on how to spend loose change."

  Just two factors -- a snowboarding boom over the past five or six years, and a desire by the older generation to re-don their skis -- have saved Japan's winter sports industry from sliding off the cliff, said Jene-Rene Belliard, chairman of Salomon Taylor Made, part of the Adidas-Salomon group.

  Certain resorts are frantically stepping up efforts to attract skiers back to the slopes.

  Gala Yuzawa is accessible from Tokyo directly by shinkansen (Japan's bullet train) in just 80 minutes. Ski and snowboard hire shops, along with locker rooms and a cable car to whisk you onto the mountain are actually located in the station -- a world first.

  Adding to the ease, special one-day tickets are available that include return travel and a ski pass.

  Japan's mass exodus from the pistes has hit smaller, more remote resorts much harder. These old-fashioned resorts, such as those in Tohoku, north Japan, are being forced to scout for snow fans from South Korea and China.

  "Our target is to welcome 500 people from Korea this season," said Ryuichi Kobayashi, chairman of the Tohoku Ropeway and Lift Association.

  "We are trying to pave the way for Shanghai. We hope by next year, we will be able to welcome people from that city too," Kobayashi said.

  The association is working with travel agencies to cut the price of one-day passes to Japanese yen 2,000 (US$16.5) from Japanese yen 4,500 for foreigners who choose to ski in Japan.

  But times are tough, admitted Kobayashi, who heads the Inawashiro resort in Fukushima.

  "Compared with the boom time of 1992 and 1993, last year ski resorts have only managed to earn around 40 to 50 percent," he said.

  All major winter sport brands have suffered a slump in sales in Japan, one of their most important markets. Some 1.8 million skis and snowboards are bought annually, down sharply from around 2.4 million to 2.5 million skis alone sold each year until 1993, according to Belliard from Salomon.

  A spokesman for Nippon Cable Co Ltd, Japan's largest manufacturer of ski lifts, estimated the ski areas hit hardest were Tohoku and Nanshin.

  "In the Kansai area because of the construction of new roads and an improvement in artificial snow-making machines, they are welcoming more people," he said.

  Belliard believes around half of Japan's 700 ski resorts are in reality bankrupt, but they choose instead to keep their business ticking over because under Japanese law they would have to dismantle their equipment and replant the slopes with forest at their own expense if they shut up shop completely.

  Publication Notes

  Melting sales

  * Japan saw around 10.8 million skiers in 2001 compared with a peak of 18.6 million in 1993. * Some 1.8 million skis and snowboards are bought annually, down sharply from around 2.4 million to 2.5 million skis alone sold each year until 1993.
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