Japanese ski town faces surge in unauthorized foreign instructors
MIHO SAITOFebruary 6, 2026 05:51 JST
NIIGATA, Japan -- The Japanese winter resort town of Yuzawa is struggling with a rising number of foreign nationals giving ski lessons despite not holding work permits, with local officials worried that its standing as a tourist destination could take a hit.
Yuzawa is just 75 minutes from central Tokyo by the shinkansen bullet train. With such convenient access, it draws crowds of foreign skiing enthusiasts each year.
Many are beginners, which means high demand for people to teach them the basics -- even how to get on and off ski lifts.
This has incentivized foreign nationals to act as paid instructors, even though they themselves hold only tourist visas and are not authorized to work in Japan. Yuzawa estimates that it has roughly 2,000 such instructors, based on a survey of ski businesses.
The figure has doubled from the previous skiing season and is now more than twice the 916 foreign nationals who live in Yuzawa.
In many cases, registration for courses and payments are discussed through social media, with the transactions completed during summer in the instructors' home countries, according to a person familiar with the situation.
This way, no money is exchanged on the slopes themselves, and the instructors can claim to authorities that they are not being compensated or are simply helping out friends.
For safety reasons, many ski slopes allow lessons with advance authorization only. Candidates must show that they are insured. If they are foreign nationals, they must provide proof of eligibility to work.
Many foreign-born instructors offering unauthorized lessons are uninsured, and their qualifications and experience are unclear.
"If we turn a blind eye to the growing lawlessness, it will damage our image as a tourist destination," said a staff member in Yuzawa's planning and tourism department.
Leaving the issue unaddressed opens up the risk of bigger problems down the road and of high-value tourists leaving for other destinations. Yuzawa officials visited the Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau in mid-January to report and discuss the situation.
This season, Yuzawa has put in place a registration system to verify instructors' work permits, insurance coverage, teaching qualifications and so on.
Currently, there are about 50 registered facilities with roughly 270 instructors, including those with pending applications. Some ski resorts have changed their rules to accept only registered instructors.
Masayoshi Iida, a member of Yuzawa's town council, is interviewing relevant parties to tackle the problem. He pledges to "act as a bridge" between the government and the private sector, including resort and school operators.
But barriers to eliminating unauthorized instruction remain. Such activities are not only difficult to detect, but also help resorts generate revenue through purchases of lift tickets, along with food and beverages. Some resort operators focus on the money and ignore the unauthorized instructors.
Ski resorts with lax oversight are considered havens for shady instructors. If Yuzawa imposes additional restrictions, then they could simply move elsewhere, creating another such haven.
"People who follow the rules should not suffer any disadvantages," said Atsuo Oka, representative director of Yuzawa's tourism and community development organization. "All relevant parties need to share awareness for complying with the law and create a sustainable tourist destination."
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