Hakuba, Japan
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At 5pm, a line has already started forming outside Ohyokkuri. Traditional izakayas are so popular that people start waiting outside 30 minutes before they open to get a seat.
On the other side of the village, skiers at the après bar sip beers and Aperol spritzes and dance to loud music while trying to avoid slipping on the wooden floor in their ski boots.
It’s your average night out during ski season in Hakuba Valley, on the outskirts of Nagano City on Honshu. Located in the Japanese Alps, this ski resort is made up of 10 ski areas and is a world-class ski resort known for its consistent snow, high mountains, and fun atmosphere.
But the influx of foreign tourists has not been entirely welcomed by local residents, who have complained about drunk and rowdy tourists.
Their complaints have been so strong that Hakuba Village Mayor Toshiro Maruyama has introduced new fines aimed at curbing the rise in anti-social behavior. Fines of up to 50,000 yen ($321) will come into effect in July and can be imposed by police for violations such as drinking while walking outdoors, making noise at night and setting off fireworks.
These are extensions of ordinances enacted a decade ago that prohibit such actions. But without penalties, there was little impact. Maruyama said local businesses had petitioned to introduce penalties for those who flout the rules.
But not everyone agrees that fines are necessary. Marcus Bauder, CEO of Hakuba Hospitality Group (HHG), a property management company that operates 10 hotels and 13 restaurants in the valley, as well as private chalets and apartments, told CNN the issue was “overblown.”
“There are areas in Hakuba that can get a little noisy at night during the winter, with pubs and bars,” says Bauder. However, “this is not unusual in any tourist city in the world. It’s not unique to Japan, and it’s not unique to Hakuba.”
So are concerns about overtourism in the village.
“We are far from there,” Bauder said. “Christmas and New Year are very busy, but we don’t have tourists for most of the year, so we’re trying to get more tourists. If it’s going to send the message that we have an overtourism problem, I think that’s very wrong.”
Walking through Happo-one, famous for hosting the 1998 Winter Olympics, it’s easy to understand the conflicting concerns on both sides. The town has a distinctly Western feel, and its famous powder snow makes it an attractive destination for travelers from all over the world.
However, these resorts retain much of their Japanese charm while catering to a Western clientele.
“There are so many Australians that sometimes you forget you’re in Japan,” one Australian farmer on a ski holiday told CNN. The attraction, he says, is the nightlife. Other resorts may be quieter and less Westernized, he says, but “there wasn’t much else to do once the sun went down.”
At the same time, Hakuba feels noticeably quieter than ski areas in the United States or Europe. Hakuba skiers often complain that aging lifts and ill-conceived runs can cause occasional bottlenecks, but lines rarely form and on an average day they have the slopes to themselves.
However, the increasing number of skiers traveling to Japan means Hakuba is becoming more and more crowded.
“The term overtourism is a little difficult to explain,” Maruyama told CNN.
This is not just a numbers issue. In 2025, 1,064,000 people visited Hakuba to ski. However, ski tourism in Hakuba peaked in 1992 with 2,785,000 skiers. The difference, the mayor said, is that in 1992, almost all of the visitors were Japanese. There are concerns that these new visitors are foreigners and are driving up prices.
Most of Hakuba’s traditional minshuku, or family-run inns, serve breakfast and dinner to their guests. But the Western model of eating out for dinner has made restaurants crowded and expensive. The weak yen makes 1,300 yen ($8.25) for a bowl of ramen seem like a bargain to tourists, but it’s too expensive for locals, Maruyama said.
The number of foreign tourists who visit this small town in winter means that supermarkets and shuttle buses are often crowded and noisy, a world away from the quiet society of Tokyo’s subways.
And the tension reaches its climax at night. Echoland, Happo-one’s nightlife area, is where most of the problems occur, with local business owners complaining about loud and drunk tourists.
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Bauder agreed that problems could arise and said “companies have a responsibility” to prevent problems in the first place.
According to some sources, real estate prices in Hakuba have also increased by 130% since the pandemic.
But Bauder said much of the resort’s growth has benefited Japanese hoteliers, whose property values have not risen since the 1990s. When Nagano Prefecture won the bid to host the 1998 Winter Olympics, construction in the area was intense and high-speed rail was built, cutting travel time from Tokyo to about 90 minutes.
In Hakuba, which hosted 11 events, many hotels went into debt to pay for the events. However, when the asset bubble burst in 1992 and real estate prices fell, they began to struggle to recover their investments.
Bauder declined to disclose details, but said HHG recently bought a hotel in Wadano, Hakuba Village, from a Japanese couple for 250 million yen ($1.6 million), which was worth less than 46 million yen ($300,000) before the pandemic.
Foreigners are not the only ones buying expensive real estate in the village. La Vigne, a newly built luxury condominium, announced that 82% of its condominiums have been sold to Japanese buyers. The most expensive one sold for 270 million yen ($1.8 million).
Hakuba is one of many destinations in Japan that struggles to find balance with tourism.
In the years since the pandemic, incidents linked to overtourism have made headlines from Kyoto to Hokkaido. Most recently, the famous cherry blossom festival held in the city of Fujiyoshida, near Mount Fuji, was canceled after complaints from disrespectful tourists.
This country is more popular than ever. According to official statistics, 42.6 million people visited Japan in 2025, despite a decline in Chinese tourists, who accounted for 26% of visitors to Japan in 2025, due to diplomatic issues between China and Japan over Taiwan. The tourism industry is currently Japan’s second largest export, amounting to 9.5 trillion yen.
The country aims to attract 60 million tourists a year by 2030.
Back in Hakuba, Mayor Maruyama says he is grateful that tourists support the local economy, but says the national government provides little aid to areas dealing with the negative effects of too many tourists.
He recently introduced a hotel tax to fund public services such as road maintenance and bus services, which are under increasing strain due to the influx of tourists.
But Bauder criticized the implementation, saying it would keep tourists away during the summer, when the mayor is eager for growth. The ski season typically begins in late November and ends in early May.
But if more tourists are to come to Japan, they need to be spread out, Maruyama said, echoing the opinion of tourism experts who stress the need to attract tourists to lesser-known areas of the country to reduce the burden on popular destinations.
There’s little he can do at this point.
“We don’t have a gate,” he said.
Japan’s ski tourism has “gone crazy” since the coronavirus pandemic, said Charlie Cohn, who with his brother Jake runs Snow Locals, a travel agency specializing in ski trips to Japan.
The two first came to Japan in 2011. Jake is a professional skier who made a promotional video for a Japanese resort in exchange for free lift tickets and a bed. The country was still recovering from the tsunami, and resorts were desperately seeking tourists.
The two soon developed a reputation among professional skiers for knowing where to find good snow and started a travel agency. Initially, their customers were the most avid skiers willing to sleep in a van. Right now, they’re primarily focused on luxury travel, Cohn said.
The charm, he says, is the snow. “I’m powder skiing and I’m always giggling.”
The cold, dry air passes through Siberia and reaches the Sea of Japan, where it absorbs moisture. When these ocean currents pass through the mountains of Japan, they bring large amounts of snow. Some resorts get about 15 meters deep per year. Snow is so dry and light that the plume of snow that flies up from skiers and lingers in the air is sometimes referred to as “cold smoke.”
Ski fees in Japan are still relatively cheap.
“If you’re looking for a ski vacation to Telluride with your family, you can fly to Japan for at least the same price, and probably a lot less,” Cohn explains.
The resorts are less crowded than those in the United States or Europe, but the infrastructure is often older. The elevator at the highest point in Niseko, a resort area in Hokkaido that is popular among foreigners, is a one-person chair with a square seat that is affectionately known as the “Pizza Box.”
American and European skiers come to Japan specifically to ski deep powder among the trees. In most resorts in Japan, these areas are cordoned off and roped off, but locals say foreign skiers simply “get around the ropes.” While some resorts, like Rusutsu in Hokkaido, have begun to allow skiing in the trees, most resorts have settled into the precarious position of not allowing skiers to go off-piste, but not actively stopping them.
However, according to officials, more than 80% of the people who needed rescue in remote areas of Hokkaido this season were foreigners.
A Hakuba Valley spokesperson said the company is “concerned” about an increase in accidents as the number of foreign tourists increases and is actively trying to educate people about the dangers of skiing in the backcountry.
Cohn says there’s a problem with skiers heading into the backcountry who “don’t have the skills to get there.” He points out that the same is true in the United States and the Alps, and there are inherent risks.
Talking to tourists around Hakuba, it seems that few have ever heard of the fines, and few businesses are keen to inform customers that there are special rules they need to follow while on vacation.
Introducing fines could send a message to tourists that they are not welcome and encourage them to go elsewhere. Mr. Maruyama agrees, saying, “I don’t think it would be such a bad thing if these people moved to other places.”
Hakuba may have a reputation for being full of young, rowdy tourists, but HHG says only 22% of its guests are under 25, with the largest demographic being 36-45 years old at 33%.
Despite the increasing number of tourists, Happo-one is quiet at night. By 9 p.m., the skiers at the après bar have gone home to take off their shoes, and small groups of tourists are staggering out of the restaurant. The line outside Ohyokkuri has disappeared, and a sign saying “Closed” has already appeared.
