Japan has massive variability in snow amounts depending on area in same year. This is because vast majority of snow is from lake effect of Siberian highs passing over Sea of Japan and hitting mountains. Depends on exact angle different places get different amount, micro climate is king.
Last year in Nozawa was late, January was bad. But actual total amounts were far from bad. Year before was an amazing year in Hakuba and Nozawa. I was skiing powder in April, knee deep. My Ski app shows I skied 15 powder days that season.
Charmant Hiuchi had also late year but huge dumps in March.
Truth is that many of the Japanese resorts Under report their snowfall, most customers are Japanese and intermediate/beginners they do not want to wake up to a knee deep on piste snow. So you get them reporting 10cm where it is more like 30.
During ski bubble a ton of resorts were built that should not have been. Really really bad spots. They are mostly dead by now, but there are still some chugging along, they always had crap snow, but because normal wait time for lift at good resorts was measured in hours back then people built them and made some money.
One more fun fact the warmer the sea is the better the lake effect. Places like Hakuba might get more snow at higher elevation then before as sea warms up. All their snow is from blow over from 3k peaks that have temperatures more in -20 range so small warmup will do nothing to them.
Last year in Nozawa was late, January was bad. But actual total amounts were far from bad. Year before was an amazing year in Hakuba and Nozawa. I was skiing powder in April, knee deep. My Ski app shows I skied 15 powder days that season.
Charmant Hiuchi had also late year but huge dumps in March.
Truth is that many of the Japanese resorts Under report their snowfall, most customers are Japanese and intermediate/beginners they do not want to wake up to a knee deep on piste snow. So you get them reporting 10cm where it is more like 30.
During ski bubble a ton of resorts were built that should not have been. Really really bad spots. They are mostly dead by now, but there are still some chugging along, they always had crap snow, but because normal wait time for lift at good resorts was measured in hours back then people built them and made some money.
One more fun fact the warmer the sea is the better the lake effect. Places like Hakuba might get more snow at higher elevation then before as sea warms up. All their snow is from blow over from 3k peaks that have temperatures more in -20 range so small warmup will do nothing to them.