China's growing sway felt in Niseko ski town

There's a cautionary tale in the many hot springs and ski resort towns that overbuilt "second home" condominiums and other facilities during the real estate boom, and are now left with tracts of empty properties they can't either fill or unload, making economic revival even more difficult for them. Unfortunately, many of these towns have only a haphazard understanding of planning and a poor framework for controlling growth--the question of where the development money is coming from is really secondary to this issue. Few Japanese have the bi-cultural business and tourism background necessary to help these smaller resort areas navigate all the potential pitfalls...

Great foresight shirokuma2011! Take Whistler for example: it's a bustling place on the weekends when the crowds come in, but it's a freaking ghost town any other time (even though there are luxury domiciles in and around the place). The situation is exacerbated by the fact that it's hard to reach from the nearest population center (Vancouver) and this makes everything expensive.

Municipal committee and local businesses may choose more alternative plans to keep a year-around-business boom from Spring to Winter, from Monday to Sunday. Creative entrepreneurs and investors can discover opportunities and solutions soon.

That was a great movie 'If you are the one' but I didn't like the sequel much. Besides it was not filmed in Niseko. I like to see Chinese tourists here, they are very nice and make me laugh a lot.

Chinese tourists counter that Japanese can be cold or give preferential treatment to other Japanese. Yes, that I unfortunately experienced once in a rotemburo. There was this Japanese baba who wanted to show off her English to me and 2 Chinese girls from Hong Kong. The baba only addressed me and I felt very annoyed towards the Chinese ladies, so I tried to include them in the conversation. The Japanese lady tried to make the Chinese girl look ridiculous. In the end I had a real fight with her and left together with the Chinese girls. I hope that this will stop from happening.

Until the Auzzies came, the apres ski was total crap. Finally the hotels and apres ski activities are being built up. Everyone goes out of Japan because the hotels suck and nothing to do. Maybe people will spend more time in Japan with the new investments.

total crap if you consider an onsen and some traditional food crap. want to know what is crap though? going to a restaurant... in niseko, IN JAPAN, and having nothing on the menu written in japanese. real great. the overpopulation of tourists has ruined that town. when you go there you should feel like you are in japan, not australia.

Japan is beautiful because of the Japanese culture and people. You fill a place with Chinese people and it's going to be noisy and a mess. If you have lived in HK you will know: they are indeed loud, lack manners, cut the line, often try to 'cut corners', etc. etc. I'm not criticizing their culture: if they are happy to behave like that they are free to do it... in their home. No need to force their manners (or lack thereof) onto others.