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$34 ski slope ramen is a glimpse of Japan’s future
Deep-pocketed tourists are boosting prices, and wages, in some of the country’s prestigious ski resorts. That carries both opportunities and risks.
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A related problem is that right now, a lot of that incoming ski money isn’t accruing to Japanese, instead going to other foreigners.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Gearoid Reidy
Japan has been trying to create a “virtuous circle” of price and wage increases for more than a decade. But there are perhaps only a few places where it has succeeded: once-sleepy skiing towns where the local economy is dominated by deep-pocketed foreign spending.
In Hokkaido’s Niseko, famous among tourists for its unrivalled powder snow, regular Japanese dishes are going for faintly outrageous prices: 3,500 yen for a bowl of tempura soba from a food truck, easily more than three times what one would pay at a sit-down joint in Tokyo; 3,200 yen for the ski resort staple of katsu curry; 3,800 yen (S$34) for crab ramen.
