Free lift passes, anyone? Japan’s ski hot spot is desperate for workers
Published: 03:12 PM,Dec 31,2022 | EDITED : 07:12 PM,Dec 31,2022
Hikari Hida
The writer reports for the Tokyo bureau of NYT
Along with its bountiful, gossamer-light snow, the Japanese ski resort area of Niseko has come to be known for luxury hotels charging upward of $2,000 a night and high-end shops selling Moncler and Bogner jackets for even more.
But this season, amid the art galleries and Instagram-ready coffee kiosks, there is another inescapable sight, one that attests to the pandemic’s lingering economic mayhem: “help wanted” ads.
At Tamashii, a bar where dozens of empty liquor bottles hang from the ceiling, flyers advertise jobs for kitchen help, dishwashers and cashiers at about 70 per cent above minimum wage. Hanazono, one of four main ski resorts on Mount Annupuri, is offering ski passes, free accommodations and “the best powder, as much as you need” to those willing to fill its openings for ski instructors, shuttle bus drivers, lift operators and rental shop staff. Reju Spa is looking for massage therapists and will offer flight ticket rebates worth $750.
After closing its borders to inbound tourists for 2 1/2 years, Japan finally reopened in October, ending an isolation that was among the longest of any top tourism destination in the world. Since then, international visitors have flooded the Niseko area, seeking to hit its globally renowned slopes.
The reopening, just before ski season, was a blessing for business owners in the area, which encompasses the towns of Niseko, Kutchan and Rankoshi on Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido. But it has also produced a perfect storm of challenges as they try to recruit someone, anyone, to fill gaping holes in their staff rosters and provide the kind of service that big-spending visitors expect.
While the area’s year-round local population is only about 25,000 residents, more than 1.3 million tourists could descend on the area between November and March, according to the Kutchan Tourism Association. With the borders only recently reopening, employers who typically hire seasonal workers from abroad have struggled to obtain work visas. The weak yen has also deterred some workers who don’t want to take what amounts to a pay cut.
And within Japan, people are not “interested in the ski industry or willing to spend three months in the snow-packed area,” said Satoshi Nagai, general manager of the Niseko Promotion Board.
The labour shortages have been a boon for workers, who are showered with perks. Markus Timander, 31, who obtained a working holiday visa from Sweden and travelled to Japan in the fall, snagged nine job offers within three days of posting his availability in a handful of Facebook groups aimed at Niseko workers.
He is now working as a driver for a new boutique hotel near the Hirafu ski resort. In addition to the use of a car during off hours, he has free accommodations — with his own bedroom — and a season ski pass.
“The response was much bigger than I have had before or than I thought it would be,” said Timander, who has worked at ski resorts around the world since graduating from high school.
With Japan’s declining and rapidly aging population and strict immigration controls, labour shortages are not unique to Niseko. And Japan is far from alone in dealing with worker shortfalls that arose as countries around the world emerged from the pandemic and restarted their economies.
But the Niseko area is also grappling with an explosion of development, adding accommodations for more than 5,600 people since 2017, an increase of more than 30 per cent, particularly in luxury properties.
Newly built hotels range in style from international brands such as Ritz-Carlton and Park Hyatt, where the average daily rate for a room is now $1,500 and ski valets meet guests when they come off the slopes, to Shiguchi, a remote complex of reconstructed traditional Japanese villas where some reservations run more than $2,000 a night.
Along the main street in Hirafu, a central village that shares a name with the area’s most popular ski resort, masses of glass walls intercut with clean lines of concrete and steel loom over the snowy landscape. An assortment of stores sell designer outerwear and artisanal lattes.
— New York Times
The writer reports for the Tokyo bureau of NYT
Along with its bountiful, gossamer-light snow, the Japanese ski resort area of Niseko has come to be known for luxury hotels charging upward of $2,000 a night and high-end shops selling Moncler and Bogner jackets for even more.
But this season, amid the art galleries and Instagram-ready coffee kiosks, there is another inescapable sight, one that attests to the pandemic’s lingering economic mayhem: “help wanted” ads.
At Tamashii, a bar where dozens of empty liquor bottles hang from the ceiling, flyers advertise jobs for kitchen help, dishwashers and cashiers at about 70 per cent above minimum wage. Hanazono, one of four main ski resorts on Mount Annupuri, is offering ski passes, free accommodations and “the best powder, as much as you need” to those willing to fill its openings for ski instructors, shuttle bus drivers, lift operators and rental shop staff. Reju Spa is looking for massage therapists and will offer flight ticket rebates worth $750.
After closing its borders to inbound tourists for 2 1/2 years, Japan finally reopened in October, ending an isolation that was among the longest of any top tourism destination in the world. Since then, international visitors have flooded the Niseko area, seeking to hit its globally renowned slopes.
The reopening, just before ski season, was a blessing for business owners in the area, which encompasses the towns of Niseko, Kutchan and Rankoshi on Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido. But it has also produced a perfect storm of challenges as they try to recruit someone, anyone, to fill gaping holes in their staff rosters and provide the kind of service that big-spending visitors expect.
While the area’s year-round local population is only about 25,000 residents, more than 1.3 million tourists could descend on the area between November and March, according to the Kutchan Tourism Association. With the borders only recently reopening, employers who typically hire seasonal workers from abroad have struggled to obtain work visas. The weak yen has also deterred some workers who don’t want to take what amounts to a pay cut.
And within Japan, people are not “interested in the ski industry or willing to spend three months in the snow-packed area,” said Satoshi Nagai, general manager of the Niseko Promotion Board.
The labour shortages have been a boon for workers, who are showered with perks. Markus Timander, 31, who obtained a working holiday visa from Sweden and travelled to Japan in the fall, snagged nine job offers within three days of posting his availability in a handful of Facebook groups aimed at Niseko workers.
He is now working as a driver for a new boutique hotel near the Hirafu ski resort. In addition to the use of a car during off hours, he has free accommodations — with his own bedroom — and a season ski pass.
“The response was much bigger than I have had before or than I thought it would be,” said Timander, who has worked at ski resorts around the world since graduating from high school.
With Japan’s declining and rapidly aging population and strict immigration controls, labour shortages are not unique to Niseko. And Japan is far from alone in dealing with worker shortfalls that arose as countries around the world emerged from the pandemic and restarted their economies.
But the Niseko area is also grappling with an explosion of development, adding accommodations for more than 5,600 people since 2017, an increase of more than 30 per cent, particularly in luxury properties.
Newly built hotels range in style from international brands such as Ritz-Carlton and Park Hyatt, where the average daily rate for a room is now $1,500 and ski valets meet guests when they come off the slopes, to Shiguchi, a remote complex of reconstructed traditional Japanese villas where some reservations run more than $2,000 a night.
Along the main street in Hirafu, a central village that shares a name with the area’s most popular ski resort, masses of glass walls intercut with clean lines of concrete and steel loom over the snowy landscape. An assortment of stores sell designer outerwear and artisanal lattes.
— New York Times