Japan Snow Season 2026-27

No Snow Yet, and a Warm Winter in the Outlook (Updated October 1)

As of October 1, none of the 44 mountains the Japan Meteorological Agency watches has its first snowcap, and no city has seen snow. That is within the usual range for the date. Last autumn the first cap came on Mt Rishiri on Oct 7, Asahidake followed on Oct 9 and Mt Fuji on Oct 23; in the cities, Asahikawa had its first snow on Oct 20 and Sapporo on Oct 23.

The official outlook leans warm. The agency's cold season outlook, issued on September 18, expects El Nino to last into winter, a weak winter monsoon, and little cold air over Japan. It gives a 50% chance of below-normal snowfall on the Sea of Japan side from Hokuriku, which includes Niigata's resorts, west to San'in, and calls the Sea of Japan side of Hokkaido and Tohoku "normal or less". Temperatures are forecast above normal from Kanto westward.

What that means for a trip: the higher and further north the resort, the safer the booking, and December is the month most at risk at low elevations. An outlook is a probability for three months, though, and a warm winter can still deliver: last winter was warm across the country, and Hokuriku ended on 99% of its normal snowfall. The warmth showed low down and late in the season: the gauge in Hakuba village never passed 45 cm, and Happo-One and Zao Onsen stopped skiing about two weeks ahead of plan in April.

Thirteen of the 15 resorts tracked here have published a first day. Karuizawa Prince is the earliest, on October 31, on machine-made snow. At Shiga Kogen one area, Kumanoyu, plans November 14, three weeks ahead of the shared lift ticket on December 5. Six resorts give November 28: Niseko, Rusutsu, Kiroro, Furano, Nozawa Onsen and Kagura. Tomamu follows on December 1, Appi Kogen on December 5, Zao Onsen on December 12, and GALA Yuzawa and Akakura Kanko on December 19. Hakuba Happo-One has not named a day, and Yeti, on Mt Fuji, says only late October. Two things to plan around: GALA Yuzawa's South Area is closed all winter, and Kagura runs latest, to May 16. Each resort's details, and how last season's opening went where the resort still says, are in the resort sections below.

How the Snow Season Moves

Snow comes to Japan from the top down and from the north-west. The summits go first: Asahidake in Hokkaido got its first snowcap between September 20 and October 20 in the last ten seasons, and Mt Fuji between September 26 and November 7. The cities follow from mid October: the first snow normally falls on October 19 in Asahikawa and October 28 in Sapporo, reaches Aomori around November 8, Nagano around November 18 and Niigata and Kanazawa around November 23, then Kyoto around December 11 and Fukuoka around December 16. Tokyo, sheltered behind the mountains, usually waits until January 3.

First snow is not snow on the ground. In Sapporo the first flakes normally fall on October 28, the first snow to settle comes around November 12, and the city is only continuously white from December 6 to April 2. Kanazawa gets real snow most winters (64 cm at its deepest last winter), but it comes and goes: like Tokyo, it has no period of continuous snow cover in the agency's statistics. For a trip built around snow, the dates that matter are the ones in the "on the ground" columns below, not the first flakes.

And a valley is not a mountain. Every snow depth on this page comes from one fixed Japan Meteorological Agency gauge, usually low in a town. Last winter the gauge in Hakuba village, at 703 m, peaked at 45 cm and was bare after Feb 23, while the gauge at Nozawa Onsen (576 m) reached 171 cm and Kutchan, below Niseko (176 m), 167 cm. The slopes above hold more, for longer: Happo-One, above that Hakuba gauge, kept skiing until Apr 19. So the resort tables below keep three things apart: how high the lifts go, whether the resort says it is partly or fully open, and what the village gauge reads.

What the Terms Mean

First snow (hatsuyuki) is the first day of the season that snow or sleet falls at a city's official weather station, settled or not. Snow on the ground here means 1 cm or more at that station, and continuous snow cover is the agency's statistic for the stretch when it stays. A first snowcap (hatsukansetsu) is the first time a named mountain turns white. Until last winter observers judged that by eye from the nearest observatory; from this season the agency reads it from its snow-depth analysis, updated hourly, and says the new dates cannot simply be compared with the old records.

When Snow Arrives, City by City

The normal dates are the Japan Meteorological Agency's 1991 to 2020 averages for its station in each city. "This season" fills in from the agency's daily records as the snow arrives.

• AsahikawaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Oct 19

  First on the ground

  Nov 4

  Continuous cover

  Nov 24 – Apr 7

  Last winter

  first snow Oct 20, deepest 83 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• SapporoNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Oct 28

  First on the ground

  Nov 12

  Continuous cover

  Dec 6 – Apr 2

  Last winter

  first snow Oct 23, deepest 112 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• HakodateNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 1

  First on the ground

  Nov 18

  Continuous cover

  Dec 19 – Mar 10

  Last winter

  first snow Oct 28, deepest 38 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• AomoriNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 8

  First on the ground

  Nov 19

  Continuous cover

  Dec 14 – Mar 23

  Last winter

  first snow Nov 11, deepest 183 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• AkitaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 15

  First on the ground

  Nov 30

  Continuous cover

  Dec 30 – Feb 26

  Last winter

  first snow Nov 18, deepest 33 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• MoriokaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 9

  First on the ground

  Nov 27

  Continuous cover

  Dec 25 – Mar 3

  Last winter

  first snow Nov 7, deepest 29 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• SendaiNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 17

  First on the ground

  Dec 21

  Continuous cover

  None

  Last winter

  first snow Nov 18, deepest 7 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• YamagataNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 16

  First on the ground

  Dec 3

  Continuous cover

  Dec 26 – Mar 5

  Last winter

  first snow Nov 18, deepest 15 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• NiigataNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 23

  First on the ground

  Dec 15

  Continuous cover

  Jan 9 – Feb 16

  Last winter

  first snow Dec 3, deepest 38 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• NaganoNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 18

  First on the ground

  Dec 10

  Continuous cover

  Jan 2 – Feb 18

  Last winter

  first snow Nov 18, deepest 14 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• KanazawaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 24

  First on the ground

  Dec 15

  Continuous cover

  None

  Last winter

  first snow Dec 3, deepest 64 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• TakayamaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Nov 17

  First on the ground

  Dec 8

  Continuous cover

  Dec 31 – Mar 3

  Last winter

  first snow not recorded, deepest 20 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• TokyoNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Jan 3

  First on the ground

  Jan 23

  Continuous cover

  None

  Last winter

  first snow Jan 2, deepest 5 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• NagoyaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Dec 18

  First on the ground

  Jan 7

  Continuous cover

  None

  Last winter

  first snow Dec 3, deepest 1 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• KyotoNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Dec 11

  First on the ground

  Jan 12

  Continuous cover

  None

  Last winter

  first snow Dec 3, deepest 7 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• OsakaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Dec 26

  First on the ground

  Jan 29

  Continuous cover

  None

  Last winter

  first snow Jan 25, none settled

  This season

  No snow yet

• HiroshimaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Dec 8

  First on the ground

  Jan 14

  Continuous cover

  None

  Last winter

  first snow Dec 3, deepest 14 cm

  This season

  No snow yet

• FukuokaNo snow yet

  First snow, normally

  Dec 16

  First on the ground

  Jan 19

  Continuous cover

  None

  Last winter

  first snow Dec 25, none settled

  This season

  No snow yet

Source: Japan Meteorological Agency daily records and normals, synced Oct 1. A few unstaffed stations (Takayama among them) record snow depth but not a first-snow date.

Resort by Resort: 2026-27 Opening Dates

Snow on the Ground: Ski Villages and Onsen Towns

The Japan Meteorological Agency's snow gauges in the places people travel to for snow, with each gauge's elevation. Last winter's figures show what a season looks like at village level; "now" is the latest daily reading.

"On the ground" runs from the first day to the last day with 1 cm or more; the snow can come and go in between. Readings as of Oct 1.

First Snowcaps: 44 Mountains

No mountain on the Japan Meteorological Agency's list has its first snowcap yet this season. The "last ten seasons" column is the range of the old visual observations, which ended last winter; this season's dates come from the agency's snow-depth analysis and are not directly comparable.

Source: Japan Meteorological Agency, first snowcap records and current summit snow (Oct 2, 2026, 0:00 Japan time).

The Official Winter Outlook

The Japan Meteorological Agency gives its outlook as three chances: below, near, or above normal. This is its cold season outlook for December to February, issued on September 18. It comes out once a year; the agency's monthly three-month outlook picks up the same months from November 24.

The agency does not forecast snowfall for the Pacific side, and it counts Nagano with Kanto, so Hakuba and Nozawa Onsen are not in the Hokuriku figure even though the same Sea of Japan storms feed them.

How the Last Ten Winters Turned Out

Winter snowfall on the Sea of Japan side as a percentage of normal, from the same agency. The spread is the point: Hokuriku had 200% of its normal snowfall in 2017-18 and 11% two winters later.

Source: Japan Meteorological Agency, cold season outlook.

Season Updates

• 2026-10-01 (Tracker launch: Japan Meteorological Agency records): The season starts from zero: none of the agency's 44 first-snowcap mountains is capped and none of the stations tracked here has recorded snow. Thirteen of the 15 resorts have published a first day, from Karuizawa Prince on October 31 to GALA Yuzawa and Akakura Kanko on December 19. For comparison, last autumn's first cap was Mt Rishiri on October 7, Mt Fuji's came on October 23, and Asahikawa's first snow fell on October 20, Sapporo's on October 23.
• 2026-09-18 (Japan Meteorological Agency cold season outlook): A warm winter is the likelier outcome, with El Nino expected to continue into it. Snowfall on the Sea of Japan side: a 50% chance of below normal from Hokuriku (Niigata to Fukui) west to San'in, and 'normal or less' for Hokkaido and Tohoku. Temperatures: a 60% chance of above normal from Kanto westward, normal or warmer in the north.

When to Go, and If Your Dates Are Fixed

October and November: snow is for looking at, not skiing on. The summits whiten through October, Hokkaido's cities get their first flakes from mid October, and the few resorts that open this early run one or two lifts. A November ski trip is a gamble anywhere in Japan; our foliage tracker covers what the season is really for.

December: Hokkaido first. Kutchan, below Niseko, is normally under continuous snow from November 21, and Sapporo from December 6. On Honshu the village gauges at Nozawa Onsen and Yuzawa first had snow on Nov 18 last winter, Hakuba's on Dec 3, and base areas often stay thin until late in the month. For Christmas and New Year, book high or book north. Our December guide has the rest of the month.

January and February: the reliable heart of the season. Last winter most village gauges read deepest between late January and mid February: 167 cm at Kutchan on Feb 13, 171 cm at Nozawa Onsen on Jan 30, 187 cm at Yuzawa on Jan 31. This is also when the snow festivals run; the winter festivals tracker has their confirmed dates.

March to May: spring skiing, top down. The villages go bare first (Yuzawa's gauge on Mar 18 last spring, Kutchan's on Apr 2) while the upper lifts keep running, and the highest resorts stay open into Golden Week.

Not skiing, just want snow? Sapporo is normally white from December 6 to April 2. Shirakawa-go's gauge first had snow on the ground on Dec 3 last winter and last on Mar 11, with 129 cm at its deepest. Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka cannot be planned around: Tokyo's deepest snow last winter was 5 cm.

Japan Snow Season FAQ