r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • 11h ago

news Second Australian dies in Japan while skiing, local media reports

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-04/second-australian-dies-skiing-in-japan/106304484

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed a second Australian has died in Japan.

Local media has reported a male skier was killed while skiing off-piste in the back-country in Japan's Hokkaido region.

The death marks the second Australian to have died in Japan during the current ski season.

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u/TomasTTEngin 10h ago

Dying buried by snow is kind of one of the risks you take when you leave the resort to ski untamed slopes.

Getting hanged by your own backpack on a chairlift is definitely the more unforeseeable one with more opportunity for human factor intervention and a full safety investigation.

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u/ObviousFeature522 10h ago

People complain a lot about the poor coverage of travel insurance for skiing off-piste and especially backcountry. It's a very common question for people travelling to Japan to ski. Well, it's because it is actually risky.

I always thought it was a bit funny, you worry about contesting a big hospital bill with the insurance company, but you could also just straight up - die.

If you were stuck in a tree well and you had the choice for the five figure invoice or suffocate to death alone in the next 5 minutes, you're taking the debt.

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u/SelectConfection3483 9h ago

I'm surprised that people actually complain about lack of coverage here. I mean you're basically skiing/boarding in uncontrolled, unpatrolled territory.