What if I told you that the same ski lodge that now costs Niseko millions of dollars, or $ 7 or $ 800,000 in Hakuba, can be built for much less than that in a world class ski resort with tons of powder snow?
What if I told you that this place is only two hours from Tokyo, has amazing ski and snowboard tracks in winter, a wide range of green season activities like hiking, golf, camping, mountaineering, fishing and even hosts Fuji Rock; a major international music festival where past headliners have been Red Hot Chili Peppers, Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails and many more.
This place is Naeba / Kagura region in Niigata prefecture.
I personally discovered this wonderful place nestled in the Japanese Alps 25 years ago when I arrived in Japan and was working in Niigata. On weekends, I was exploring the myriad of ski resorts in Niigata and Nagano, and was blown away by the amount and quality of the snow here, especially at Kagura Ski Resort. The high mountain pass where Naeba is located is actually between Yuzawa town to the north and Minakami in Gunma Prefecture to the south.
Years later, when I owned a business in Tokyo, I wanted a getaway place to take my family on the weekends. I found an older chalet in the Naeba area and have gradually improved and renovated it over the years.
I enjoyed spending time here so much that I decided to make Naeba my main base of operations in Japan and also started a real estate investment business. Our brokerage firm Solid Real Estate Japan KK, specializes in beach and mountain properties in Japan. My partner Ayaka mainly deals with beach properties, while I focus on mountain areas. We work hard to help people achieve their goals of owning a vacation home in Japan. I am also doing my best to introduce the Naeba region to the international community.
Naeba is not without its challenges, however. If you ask many Japanese people, they will probably tell you about the huge ski resort and the Naeba Prince Hotel, as well as the bubble-era condos their parents bought and ultimately lost to. money. So, for the domestic population, there may be the image that Naeba’s best years were in the 80s and early 90s.
The area has indeed seen more difficult times in recent years, as many of the original owners here are approaching their twilight and no longer want to own a condo or ski chalet. Yuzawa Machi, where Naeba is located, had only 8,040 full-time residents as of December 2020. In contrast, Hakuba is a similar size with 8,498 residents and Kutchan and Niseko, the two areas commonly referred to as Niseko in the rest of the world, combined have just over 20,000 inhabitants.
Hakuba and Niseko may generate more economic activity right now, but the real challenge with these resorts is that they are difficult and time consuming to reach from the capital.
The main draw and advantage of Naeba over these resorts and many more is its access to Tokyo. Especially for those who live and work in the city.
Location, location, location
From Tokyo Station, it takes a little over an hour by high-speed train to Echigo-Yuzawa and from there another 25 minutes by bus or taxi to Naeba. If you are driving from Tokyo, Naeba can be reached in just over 2 hours depending on traffic. No other major ski resort in Japan offers the combination of powder snow and great accessibility in Tokyo.
From Tokyo Station via bullet train, Echigo-Yuzawa is approximately 90 minutes from station to station. From there, it takes another 30 minutes to drive to the Naeba / Kagura area.
This means that if you work in Tokyo, you can finish the job at 6 pm on a Friday night and be here a little after 8 pm; transporting you from the concrete jungle to arguably some of the most beautiful scenery Japan has to offer.
The food here is also a major attraction. With incredible fresh local produce, Niigata is also known for having some of the best rice and sake in Japan.
Famous author Yasunori Kawabata has placed his novel Snow Country masterpiece in the region; a story that won him a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. To write the novel, Kawabata spent time in Yuzawa and although the area was not specifically mentioned, the room where he worked on the book is in to this day a museum which has preserved the state of the piece as it was when Kawabata wrote there. There is a deep history rooted in nature throughout the community and cultural elements that carry great significance around the world.
Limited available footprint
Naeba and Kagura are located inside Joshin’etsukogen National Park, which means most of the land is nationally protected and unavailable for development.
This limited supply of land is expected to put upward pressure on prices as more international skiers discover the region.
However, at this time, buying in the region should probably not be viewed as just a financial decision, but rather a lifestyle decision.
Naeba is a place where you can live all year round but you have to love the snow. If you are not a fan of winter, Naeba could be your weekend getaway from the city during the green seasons.
Much like Karuizawa has long been a favorite mountain getaway for the wealthy looking to escape the heat of Tokyo’s summers, Naeba is on average 8 degrees cooler than Tokyo. Thus, when the mercury reaches 34 degrees in Tokyo, Naeba is 26 degrees cool thanks to the 1000 meters of altitude.
Note the cloud cover and snow on the way to the Kan-Etsu Tunnel versus the absence of the two exiting on the other side in Gunma Prefecture. The tunnel crosses the mountains that separate the Yuzawa region from Gunma on the other side of the chain. The mountains are what keep snow from reaching Gunma, making the Yuzawa side more accommodating for optimal ski conditions and cooler temperatures all year round.
It may take some time for Naeba to re-emerge. Naeba is currently generally disliked by domestic investors. This is reminiscent of what we saw with Niseko in the late 90s and Hakuba before the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998. If you see the potential and take a long-term view, then you can. do well. After watching Niseko and Hakuba evolve, I am convinced that there is no reason why Naeba cannot transform into something similar with sufficient international participation in the region.
It will probably take time but as Hakuba and Niseko have shown, once the international community invests and helps revive the local community, Japanese interest will also return. The fundamentals and the infrastructure are already in place.
For now, if you are looking to build a dreamy second home on beautiful land with views of the Japanese Alps from your porch, then I invite you to delve deeper into what Naeba has to offer. We currently have a number of ski chalets and building plots available so please do not hesitate to contact us.
