Abstract

Modern downhill skiing was first systematically introduced to Japan by an Austrian military attache Theodor Edler von Lerhi when he conducted a ski clinic for the Japanese Imperial Army as military training in 1912 in Takata city in Niigata prefecture. It was not until after world war II, in the 1950s, that the numbers of skiers gradually increased. At that time, with recovery of the nation's economy, several skiing areas developed and chair lift systems were constructed. In the beginning of the 1960s, skiing became popular among city inhabitants as a leisure winter time sports. The real ski boom in Japan came during the 1980s in concert with the rapid development of economic conditions. Many large scale skiing areas were developed and facilities improved. By the middle 1990s there were almost 700 skiing areas. The numbers of skiers exceeded 17.7 million in 1994, nearly 15 percent of the nation's entire population at that time. It is pointed out, however, that this rapidly progressed sports seems to have declined since the middle of the 1990s. Numbers of participants in skiing have decreased and ski related businesses and industries have suffered. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to investigate the current state of the ski market in Japan, and discuss problems found. Aus der Einleitung