The birth of sports and tourism business through the restoration of ski resorts and utilization of empty space.

Suzuki: A large number of the founding members of Nippon Ski Development are ski enthusiasts. They often say, “I can’t understand how it is possible not to go skiing every year”. But, I also understand how those who don’t go skiing feel. Because of this, I think I have been able to objectively judge the service of ski resorts, and work on the improvement. At the same time, I was very interested in regional revitalization. By discovering something special that can only be found in that particular region and spreading it to the larger society, I hope that we can contribute to the heightened worth of that region. In Gifu prefecture’s local area surrounding a ski resort known as Meiho, we discovered that other than the very famous Meiho ham, they make delicious rice. Also, in Gunma prefecture’s Kawaba-mura, where Kawaba Ski Resort is located, “Yuki Hotaka”, a multiple award-winning rice, is a specialty crop. Alongside the roads of both Meiho and Kawaba’s station, we operate rice ball shops that utilize these foods. Rather than Nippon Ski Development, we find importance in making the people of the ski resorts and the local area the key players. Already at Kashimayari, Kawaba Ski Resort, and Meiho Ski Resort, we are relying on local individuals as representatives of the respective resorts. Through collaborative efforts in ski resort management, we have the locals absorb management skills; we look forward to the day when they eventually take on the management role.
For people in the region, it is something to be happy about, and I believe the birth of new human capital, locally, that can take on management will lead to a more energized region. By firmly holding onto a long-term vision, and innovating both “hardware” and“software” sides of regional support and the ski resort as a core business, I would like to see cooperation with the regions in creating a better future, 20, 20 years down the line.

Yukimoto: For the theme parks that overcame the coronavirus pandemic with steady efforts, the accommodation business and the villa business also devoted resources to the coronavirus pandemic and did not hesitate to make new investments. The theme park business personnel have been shifted to the villa division, and all new employees in April 2020 have also been assigned to the villa division. We accumulated profits by calling each owner of the villa and calling for care such as mowing and thinning. In addition, we prepared heavy machinery by ourselves and proceeded with thinning of the forest, expanded the camp site where demand was growing due to the coronavirus pandemic. We used our internal resources to do the work, so we were able to increase the number of sites from 22 to 55 with an investment of several million yen. In addition, although the number of guests staying at the cottage decreased temporarily, there were some long-term guests from Tokyo who stayed for 50 to 60 nights in a row. After the state of emergency was declared, we also decided to build a new villa. Demand for cottage-type accommodations that allow you to spend time away from other guests has increased, so the first investment is to increase the use as a rental villa. Eventually, it will be sold as a villa, but since it will be profitable enough to operate as an accommodation facility, it will be used as a rental villa until it is sold. In the accommodation business, buffet-style dinners became difficult in coronavirus, so we switched to outdoor barbecue-based dinners. A service to cater barbecue sets to the villa has also started, and in October 2021a pet-friendly semi-private room type barbecue site was newly opened. We have steadily improved our business performance by working to meet the new needs of coronavirus pandemic. Regional revitalization is often talked about in the order of town, people, and work, but we think that it starts with work. Because people have jobs, the number of people is increasing in a city, and the city can be created there. We are currently increasing the number of hires in Nippon Theme Park Development, by increasing the number of hires, we would like to increase the number of people who live in the city alone, prevent the outflow of population in rural areas, and further enhance the attractiveness of the city.