No snow on the ground or falling right now. Not open yet for 2026/27. We have not yet found an official opening date. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.
Typical snowfall
201cm
A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →
Elevation
167–319 m
Across
1.0 km
This season so far (1 Nov to 9 Nov): 4 cm. The average for these dates is under 10 cm, so we do not give a percentage yet. The average is over twelve winters on the same weather model. Across Japan →
Part of the Shin-Arashiyama Sky Park, this hill is used outside the snow season to graze young cattle from the town's ranch. It closed in October 2023 when the park's operating company went bankrupt, and the town reopened it under direct management in January 2025 so local children could keep their school ski lessons. Sources: memuro.net, hokkaido-np.co.jp (sources read 12 Oct 2026; an AI draft the site operator has not yet checked)
Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 9 km away measured 225 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 207 cm from the model.
How much snow it gets
Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Seasonal snowfall
201cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
122cm
The middle winter of the 12: 203 cm. The best: 251 cm.
World rank
1140
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
261
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
332
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 241 m, 525 m below the national median.
Quality rank
185
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
−3.8°C
Japanese median: −3.6°C
Rain days
9%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
10%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
12km/h
Average daily peak, 10 m above ground across a model grid cell; not the wind on ridges or lift tops
Dryness42
Frequency28
Freedom from rain76
Calm when snowing (model grid)100
The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.
The quality score leaves out how much snow falls (it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind).
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.
The most snow falls in March. March brings as much as January, or more. In amount, March brings 57 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
44cmDec
49cmJan
51cmFeb
57cmMar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 201 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2018/19 with 122 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 251 cm (2.1 times as much). For 63% of the 397 ski areas in Japan the leanest winter was 2015/16; here it was a different one.
Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 芽室 weather station — 9 km from this ski area, 127 m below its mid-slope.
Three-season average
225 cm
2023/24
219 cm
2024/25
241 cm
2025/26
216 cm
The figure calculated on this page is 207 cm.
A weather station is not a ski slope. We picked one at a similar elevation, but it stands in a valley or a village. More snow falls on the mountain above it. We have not tried to guess how much more.
Source: Japan Meteorological Agency historical records
Worth seeing nearby
Within 20 km in a straight line, nearest first. Some lie over a pass that is closed in winter.
Chosen from the places most read about on Wikipedia, favouring those with an English article. Based on the Japanese Wikipedia lists of sights in each prefecture, as compiled in travel-log-data (CC BY-SA 4.0). English names from Wikidata (CC0). The content of this section is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Map
The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.
1 places within 12 km of the slopes, as mapped on OpenStreetMap, many of them small inns and pensions. Many are not on booking sites — open the name for the website or the map.
We checked the 2026/27 adult day ticket on each resort's own site. At the window it runs from ¥7,000 at Akakura Kanko to ¥16,700 at Rusutsu. Buying online saves up to ¥3,500, and the first and last weeks of the season cost up to half. For those cheap spring weeks, we add which way each resort's slopes face.