Where the snow falls / Planning a trip
Tokyo Disney Resort's Owner Has Backed a Small Hakuba Firm. The Ski Area It Has Been Reviving Gets 1.5 Times Happo-One's Snow
Oriental Land, which runs Tokyo Disney Resort, has put ¥88 million into Zukutochie, a Hakuba company that has spent two years turning round Hakuba Norikura. Here is what the deal is and is not, and why Norikura is worth a look this winter: 635 cm in a typical winter against Happo-One's 414 cm, on a ¥6,500 ticket shared with Cortina.
On 22 October, Oriental Land, the company that operates Tokyo Disney Resort, announced that its venture arm had invested ¥88 million in a small company in Hakuba. It is the first time the fund has backed a regional business that develops and runs tourist facilities itself.
The headline invites the wrong picture. Nobody is building a theme park in the Northern Alps. But the company that took the money has been quietly reworking one of Hakuba’s least-known ski areas, and that ski area happens to be one of the snowiest in the valley.
What was actually announced
According to Zukutochie’s announcement:
- Oriental Land Innovations, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oriental Land set up in 2020 to invest in young companies, subscribed ¥88 million of new shares in September 2026.
- Zukutochie, founded in Hakuba village in July 2022, is the recipient.
- It is a minority stake. Oriental Land sends no directors, and Zukutochie’s management does not change.
- The money is for opening new facilities, rebuilding old ones, and hiring.
Zukutochie has two co-founders with long Hakuba careers. Yutaka Wada ran the company behind Hakuba Iwatake until October 2023; Satoru Ohta, born and raised in Hakuba, was head of sales at Hakuba Kanko Kaihatsu before founding Zukutochie (company profile).
What Zukutochie runs that a skier might use
The company says it is involved in nearly 20 facilities and businesses across Hakuba, Otari and Omachi, 11 of them started since 2022. The ones a visiting skier is likely to meet:
| Area | Place | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Norikura | Hakuba Norikura Onsen | Ski area; Zukutochie has managed its operating company since January 2024 |
| Happo | Hakuba Happo Yamabuki Shokudo | 104-seat restaurant, open all year since December 2024 |
| Iwatake | B&D Hakuba Iwatake / &Deli | Nine-room lodge and deli rebuilt from a 40-year-old lodge, opened January 2026 |
| Iwatake | The Gakusui Hakuba Iwatake | 14-room hostel converted from an old inn, opened December 2025 |
| Tsugaike | DJ Bar Steam Hakuba | A closed hot-spring building reopened as a bar, January 2025 |
| Lake Aoki | ao Lakeside Cafe / Hakuba Zekkei Sauna “ao” | Lakeside cafe and sauna, opened 2024 |
Opening dates, seat and room counts are from Zukutochie’s announcement of 22 October 2026.
The Happo restaurant is the one most visitors will notice. Zukutochie describes it as a place for guests whose lodging does not serve dinner, and the Gakusui hostel brought in a ground-floor restaurant for the same reason in Iwatake. If you are booking room-only in Hakuba, check what you can walk to for dinner before you arrive.
What happened at Hakuba Norikura
Hakuba Norikura sits at the northern end of Hakuba Valley, at the foot of Mount Hakuba Norikura, and is easy to miss on a map dominated by Happo-One and Goryu.
Zukutochie began advising the company that runs the ski area and its base hotel in 2023, and took over its management under contract in January 2024 (2024 announcement, Japanese). By its own account, it moved the business away from coach tours towards independent travellers, tied the ski area more closely to neighbouring Hakuba Cortina, and raised sales by about 1.4 times in two years. From April 2026 the hotel building has been leased to another operator, so the company can concentrate on the ski area.
That tie-up with Cortina is visible on the ticket. For 2026/27 every Norikura lift ticket is also valid at Hakuba Cortina: ¥6,500 a day at the window, ¥6,100 online from the official site (our lift ticket page; Cortina’s price page). A peak-season day at Happo-One is ¥9,800 at the window.
How much snow Norikura gets
| Hakuba Norikura | Hakuba Iwatake | Hakuba Happo-One | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical winter (12-winter mean) | 635 cm | 668 cm | 414 cm |
| Rank in Japan | 22nd | 17th | 74th |
| Leanest winter of the twelve | 380 cm | 380 cm | 301 cm |
| Typical December | 189 cm | 204 cm | 126 cm |
December–March snowfall from the ERA5 model, averaged over 2014/15 to 2025/26. See “How this was measured” below.
On our figures, Norikura gets about 1.5 times Happo-One’s snow. Its worst winter in twelve, 380 cm, is close to Happo-One’s average. December is strong too, which matters if you are going over Christmas and New Year.
What we have confirmed on the operator’s own pages (Norikura’s page):
- 798 m of vertical and 14 courses, including a 38-degree pitch and a mogul course, with some terrain left ungroomed
- The Wakaguri hot spring rises within the ski area, and day bathing is available
- A free, netted kids’ park right by the slope-side entrance of the Hakuba Alps Hotel
- A free day car park on the Wakaguri side
Norikura is due to open on 12 December and run until 4 April 2027, with only the Wakaguri side open from 22 March (official site). Cortina is due to open on the same day, so both halves of the shared ticket start together (opening dates).
What might change next
Nothing has been announced for Norikura itself. The nearest guide is Hakuba Iwatake, where Wada and Ohta were both involved in a push to draw visitors outside the snow season. Its parent company reports about 255,000 green-season visitors in 2024, roughly ten times the 2016 figure (Nippon Ski Resort Development, Japanese).
There is no promise that Norikura goes the same way. For now it is one of the snowiest ski areas in Hakuba Valley, on a day ticket ¥3,300 cheaper than a peak day at Happo-One, and it has not yet had the kind of investment Iwatake has.
How this was measured
Snowfall is the December–March total at each ski area’s coordinates from ERA5 reanalysis via the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API, averaged over the twelve winters from 2014/15 to 2025/26 and measured the same way at every ski area on this site. These are model figures and run well below what resorts report (why), so use them to compare one ski area with another rather than as absolute depths. Norikura and Cortina come out almost identical because they sit so close together.
Details of the investment, Zukutochie’s facilities and its sales figures are from Zukutochie’s announcement of 22 October 2026; we have not verified them independently. Lift prices are from each resort’s official site and can change during the season, so check before you buy.
Sources: Zukutochie announcement (Japanese); Open-Meteo historical weather data, based on the ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus Climate Change Service).
Questions
Has Disney bought a Hakuba ski resort?
No. Oriental Land Innovations, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oriental Land (the Japanese company that operates Tokyo Disney Resort under licence), took a minority stake of ¥88 million in Zukutochie, a Hakuba-based tourism company. It sends no directors and Zukutochie's management is unchanged.
Which ski area is Zukutochie involved in?
Hakuba Norikura Onsen. Zukutochie began advising the company that runs it in 2023 and has managed it under contract since January 2024.
How much is a day ticket at Hakuba Norikura for 2026/27?
The ticket is shared with neighbouring Hakuba Cortina: ¥6,500 at the window or ¥6,100 bought online from the official site, as checked on our lift ticket page.
Book the trip
We do not take bookings. These are the sites Japanese ski accommodation actually sits on.
Contains advertising. We may earn a commission on bookings made through Rakuten.
Keep reading
Other guides built from the same dataset.