Japan ski towns lead the nation in residential land price growth

Japan’s ski and mountain resorts account for an unusually large share of the country’s fastest-rising residential land in 2026, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s (MLIT) Prefectural Land Price Survey.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Five of Japan’s 10 fastest-rising residential benchmarks were in four resort markets: Furano, Hakuba, Nozawa Onsen and Myoko. Their increases were many times the 1.0% year-on-year (YoY) rise in Japan’s nationwide residential land average.

• Furano: +32.0% YoY

• Hakuba: +31.3% YoY and +31.1% YoY at two residential benchmarks

• Nozawa Onsen: +21.8% YoY

• Myoko, Sekigawa: +18.5% YoY

• Japan residential average: +1.0% YoY

Hakuba also recorded Japan’s highest commercial land increase, at 35.6% YoY, indicating that pressure on land in leading ski destinations is not limited to residential use.

Japan does not continuously value every parcel of land for this survey. Instead, prefectural governments have professional real estate appraisers assess more than 21,000 designated benchmark locations nationwide each year, providing an official measure of land values as of July 1st.

These are not transaction or asking prices. But because the same benchmark locations are assessed over time, they provide a useful trend line for where local land values are heading.

Fast growth does not mean high prices...yet

The national rankings reveal where official land values are changing fastest. They do not show which resort markets have the most expensive land.

The differences in absolute value are substantial:

• Furano: JPY 68,100/sqm, +32.0% YoY

• Hakuba: JPY 17,600/sqm, +31.3% YoY

• Myoko, Sekigawa: JPY 7,700/sqm, +18.5% YoY

• Kutchan: JPY 150,000/sqm, +8.7% YoY

Kutchan, the municipality containing much of the Niseko resort area, provides a useful benchmark. Its residential benchmark is considerably more expensive despite appreciating more slowly.

Percentage appreciation therefore shows where land values are changing fastest, not where land costs the most.

The markets are also at very different stages of development. International tourism, accommodation and resort development, second-home demand, investment and limited land in desirable locations can all contribute to land pressure, although the mix differs between resorts.

The 2026 data suggest that strong appreciation is now visible across a wider range of Japan’s ski destinations, rather than being confined to its most established international resort markets.

Myoko’s resort area is accelerating

The granular geography is important when interpreting the Myoko numbers.

Myoko City covers a much larger area than the Myoko Kogen resort zone. The standout residential benchmark is in Sekigawa, part of the Myoko Kogen area and close to its ski resorts, pensions and vacation homes.

At the Sekigawa benchmark, official residential land growth has accelerated sharply:

• 2024: +9.0% YoY

• 2025: +12.1% YoY

• 2026: +18.5% YoY

The official land value reached JPY 7,700 per sqm in 2026, with the annual rate of increase roughly doubling in two years.

Conditions across Myoko City as a whole are much less dramatic, although they have improved. The average change across the city’s residential benchmarks moved from -0.5% in 2025 to approximately +1.2% in 2026.

That compares with a 0.8% YoY decline in Niigata Prefecture’s residential average. The prefecture’s all-use land average also fell 0.6%, extending its run of declines to 31 consecutive years.

But Myoko’s location is important. Although administratively part of Niigata Prefecture, Myoko City sits directly on the Nagano border and forms part of a broader mountain tourism corridor that includes nearby ski destinations such as Nozawa Onsen.

For Myoko’s resort property market, arguably what happens across the border in Nagano matters more than broader trends in the prefecture it sits in.

That helps explain why Myoko is better viewed alongside Japan’s expanding ski-resort markets than as evidence of a wider recovery in Niigata land values.

Local reporting suggests that tightening availability around Myoko Kogen may now be affecting where some buyers search.

The regional newspaper Niigata Nippo reported that:

• More than 10 pensions and minshuku in the Ikenotaira resort area changed ownership over the past two years to foreign investors or real estate businesses from outside Niigata.

• Local real estate participants report increasingly limited property available around Myoko Kogen.

• Domestic and international inquiries for property in Sekigawa have increased.

• Some buyers are extending their search toward the former Arai City area, around 30 to 40 minutes from Myoko Kogen.

• Particularly inexpensive existing homes below approximately JPY 5 million have attracted buyer interest.

Arai is part of present-day Myoko City but is a different residential market from the Myoko Kogen resort core. The former Arai City was merged into Myoko City in 2005.

The reported movement toward Arai is potentially significant. It suggests that limited availability around the resorts may be broadening the geographic search for property within Myoko City itself.

There is not yet evidence of a broader Arai upswing. Three of five residential benchmarks in the former Arai area recorded smaller declines than the previous year, according to Niigata Nippo, but they were still declining.

The search for the “next Niseko” is spreading across Japan

Niseko remains Japan’s best-established international ski-property market. What is changing is that it is increasingly being joined by other mountain destinations attracting development, investment and property demand.

The 2026 land data make that broadening particularly visible. Furano, Hakuba, Nozawa Onsen and Myoko all feature among Japan’s fastest-rising residential benchmarks, even though their land values and stages of development remain very different.

Rather than pointing to a single “next Niseko,” the figures suggest Japan is developing a deeper group of internationally relevant ski-property markets. Niseko remains the mature benchmark, while other destinations are increasingly joining its ranks from much lower starting points.

Myoko shows how that process may develop geographically. The strongest appreciation remains around Myoko Kogen, while local reporting suggests limited availability near the resort is encouraging some buyers to widen their search to other parts of Myoko City.

That broadening may ultimately be more significant than identifying which resort becomes the “next Niseko.” Japan’s ski-property market is becoming less concentrated, with a growing number of mountain destinations attracting the demand, development and investment that can reshape local land values.

Further Reading:

MLIT: 2026 Prefectural Land Price Survey (Japanese only)

Niigata Prefecture: 2026 Land Price Survey Results (Japanese only)

Niigata Nippo: Myoko Kogen property shortage signals resort demand spreading toward Arai (Japanese only; free-walled)

Niigata Nippo: Myoko’s Sekigawa enters Japan’s top 10 for residential land-price growth (Japanese only; free-walled)