著者

呉羽 正昭 KUREHA Masaaki

出版者

日本スキー学会

雑誌

スキー研究 (ISSN:1349449X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, no.1, pp.27-42, 2014-09

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This study examines the regional pattern of lost and closed ski fields in Japan, analyzing closing trend of alldeveloped ski fields including those equipped only with T-bar lifts. Around 750 ski fields were opened between1950 and 2003 in the whole country. However, nearly 37 percent of them were already closed or completelydisappeared. This trend was dominant around 2000, involving owners' changes of lift companies. Most of thelost fields tend to be very small with one or two ski lifts. Whereas there are many lost ski fields previously operatedby urban capital around the metropolitan areas, the outer extent areas from there have many lost ski fieldsby local governments. The increasing difficulty of the management plays an important role for the closing basedon the decrease in the number of active skiers, rather than shortage of snow depth. The changing environment ofthe management has been affected through the changes in locational conditions for ski fields, the diseconomiesof fields' agglomeration in an appropriate region, the very short-term of growth period around 1990, and problemsin local municipalities(such as deficit budget and amalgamation).While the number of active skierscontinuously decreased in the last 20 years, especially in snowy regions in eastern Japan, there are some signsfor recovering market of skiers now. Operating firms of existing ski fields face various tasks for the sustainabledevelopment, including measures against the expanding foreign skiers.