What if I told you that the same ski chalet that now costs millions of dollars in Niseko, or 7 or 8 hundred thousand dollars in Hakuba, can be built for far less than this at a world class ski resort with tonnes of powder snow?

What if I told you this place is just two hours from Tokyo, has incredible skiing and snowboarding in the winters, a wide array of green season activities like hiking, golf, camping, mountain climbing, fishing and even hosts Fuji Rock; a major international music festival where past headliners have been the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire, the Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails and many more.

That place is the Naeba/Kagura area in Niigata Prefecture.

I personally discovered this wonderful place nestled in the Japanese Alps 25 years ago when I first arrived in Japan and was working in Niigata. On weekends I would explore the multitude of ski resorts in Niigata and Nagano, and was blown away by the amount and quality of the snow here, particularly at Kagura Ski resort. The high mountain pass where Naeba is located is actually in between Yuzawa Town to the north and Minakami in Gunma Prefecture to the south.

Years later, while owning a business in Tokyo, I wanted a getaway location to take my family for weekends.  I found an older chalet in the Naeba area and gradually improved and renovated it over the years. 

I loved 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 company Solid Real Estate Japan KK, specializes in beach and mountain properties in Japan. My partner Ayaka mainly handles the beach properties, while I focus on the mountain areas. We are working hard to help people realize their goals of owning a vacation home in Japan. I am also doing my best to introduce the Naeba area to the international community.

Naeba isn’t without its challenges though.  If you ask many Japanese people, they will probably tell you about the massive ski resort and Naeba Prince Hotel, and the bubble era condos their parents bought and eventually lost money on.  So for the domestic population, there may be the image that Naeba’s best years were in the 80’s and early 90’s. 

The area has indeed fallen on harder times in recent years as many of the original homeowners here are approaching their twilight years, and no longer want to own a ski condo or chalet. Yuzawa Machi, where Naeba is located only has 8,040 full-time residents as of December 2020. By contrast, Hakuba is a similar size with 8,498 residents and Kutchan and Niseko, the two areas commonly referred to as Niseko to the rest of the world, combined have a little over 20,000 residents.

Hakuba and Niseko may generate greater economic activity at present, but the real challenge of these resorts is that they are difficult and time-consuming to get to from the capital. 

Naeba’s primary appeal and advantage over these and many other resorts is its access to Tokyo. Especially for those living and working in the city.

Location, Location, Location

From Tokyo Station it is just over an hour on the bullet train to Echigo-Yuzawa and from there another 25 minutes or so by bus or taxi ride into Naeba. If driving from Tokyo, Naeba can be reached in a little over 2 hours depending on traffic. No other major ski resort in Japan offers the combination of powder snow and great accessibility to Tokyo.

From Tokyo station via bullet train, Echigo-Yuzawa is around 90 mins station to station.  From there, it is another 30 minute drive to the Naeba / Kagura area.

This means if you are working in Tokyo, you can finish work at 6pm on a Friday night and be here by a little after 8pm; transporting you from the concrete jungle to arguably some of the nicest scenery Japan has to offer. 

The food here is also a major attraction. With amazing fresh local produce, Niigata is also known for having some of the finest rice and sake in Japan.  

Famed author Yasunori Kawabata set his masterpiece novel Snow Country in the area; a story that helped win him a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. To write the novel, Kawabata spent time in Yuzawa and while the area wasn’t mentioned specifically, the room where he worked on the book is to this day a museum that has preserved the state of the room as is the way it was when Kawabata wrote there. There is steep history rooted in nature throughout the community and cultural elements that have far reach around the globe.

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 should lead to upward price pressure as more and more international skiers discover the area. 

However at present, purchasing in the area should probably not be thought of solely as a financially driven decision but more of a lifestyle one. 

Naeba is a place where you could live year round but you have to like the snow.  If you’re not a fan of winter then Naeba could be your weekend getaway from the city in the green seasons.

Just as Karuizawa has long been a favorite mountain getaway for the wealthy looking to escape the heat of Tokyo summers,  Naeba is on average 8 degrees cooler than Tokyo.  So when the mercury reaches 34 degrees in Tokyo, Naeba is a cool 26 degrees thanks to the 1,000 meter altitude.

Naeba’s re-emergence may take some time. Naeba is by and large currently unloved by domestic investors.  This is not unlike what we saw with Niseko in the late nineties and Hakuba prior to the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998. If you see the potential and take a long-term view, then you may do well.  After watching Niseko and Hakuba evolve, I’m convinced there is no reason why Naeba can't turn into something similar with enough international participation in the area. 

It will probably take some time but as Hakuba and Niseko have shown, once the international community invests, and helps revive the local community, the Japanese interest will also come back. The fundamentals and infrastructure are already in place.

For now, if you are looking to build a dream second home on a beautiful plot of land with views of the Japanese Alps from your front porch, then I urge you to look deeper into what Naeba has to offer. We currently have a number of Ski Chalets and building plots available, so please feel free to reach out.

Further Reading

Comfortable Mountain Villa For Sale in Naeba (REthink Tokyo; October, 2021)