Japan Snow Report, January 1st, 2026

Hi, Luke Kneller here in Matarau for the Mountain Watch Snow Report for January 1st, 2026 with thanks to XDM Performance. We've had plenty of fresh snow overnight across Japan to bring in the new year with great conditions across the resorts of Hokkaido and Honshu. Hakuba, Matarau and Nendazawa all received around 10cm plus overnight while the Myoko Resort saw closer to 30cm. Looking up north, the Nishiko saw around 20cm with cold temps and snow continuing to fall. We're expecting these snowfalls to continue over the next few days until around the 5th or 6th with some heavy snow expected in some areas. It's some much needed snow as we saw a bit of a slower than normal start across Japan with decent snowfalls early December. However, it was followed by a few weeks of warm weather which reduced the base back down quite a lot. Fortunately, the Boxing Day storm delivered with 80cm plus falling across most resorts around the country allowing them to all get up and running for the holiday period. Resorts across Hokkaido and Honshu including Hakuba, Myoko, Nendazawa, Nishiko and Furano are practically all fully up and running now with fantastic conditions on the groomers and the odd little powder pocket. The tree skiing is still a bit touch and go in a lot of areas until the base builds up a bit more which is fortunately looking very soon with the next few weeks stacked with consistent snowstorms. It's feeling well and truly back on here and with no signs of slowing down it's looking like traditional consistent deep power days throughout January and February. The grasshopper is dropping his updated outlook tomorrow so make sure to check that out. This has been Luke Kneller in Matarau for XTM Performance on MountainWatch.com.