[GoNative]

I work for a foreign company at the Niseko ski resort in Hokkaido. A great frustration of mine has been the almost total lack of investment by Japanese investors during a period this resort has seen significant growth in international visitors and a massive amount of investment from foreign investors. Particularly frustrating are the resort owners of the Hirafu ski area. It has been actually quite astounding their ineptitude at taking any sort of advantage at all of the recent growth. Most ski resorts in Japan are struggling with a declining market and many have been going bankrupt and closing in recent years. Niseko is one of the few that has seen growth and probably the only one that has seen 100's of millions of dollars in property and services investments. Problem is just about all the investment and those making money from the growth are foreigners. You would think if you're the managers of a ski area that had been in steady decline since the bubble years you would jump at the chance to capitalise on a new period of growth. Alas no, in recent talks with the resort managers and our company they fully admitted they have no idea how to deal with the foreign market that's coming here. That's 7 or so years on since foreigners started coming here in reasonable numbers. They have still no hired even one foreigner in any sort of position, let alone management, to assist them in understanding this market to take advantage of it. It simply astounds me. Is it any wonder the Japanese economy has been stagnant or declining for so long. They seem to have forgotten how to do business. Well at least that's my experience up here. I'm sure it's probably different down in big cities like Tokyo. At least I'd hope so!
I would love for more Japanese investors and companies to get involved up here. Shouldn't just be foreign companies taking advantage of the money to be made here.