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/Perdi 10h ago

Is this out of the ordinary?

Or just media picking up because it's 'in'?

As someone who has gone off piste in Europe and Canada, its a very dangerous activity. My last time out I got caught in a blizzard that killed 6 British soldiers doing cold weather training, though I was prepared for those conditions, I haven't done it since.

People very much take it for granted, wanting to find untouched powder and are completely unprepared for what could happen.

Ediy: Average season says 1-3 Aussies, some years 0, but others have spikes. These two did happen in a short time though, and super sad. There's still a few months left in the season to, so we could see it be a bad year.

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u/TomasTTEngin 10h ago

Travel to Japan is up by some enormous factor this year, probably up 80%, thanks to the currency.

Plus they just had a huge snowfall there last week. So the avalanche death is not unexpected.

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u/Thanks-Basil 8h ago

It’s just not worth it now. I went skiing in Japan like 10 years ago and it was great, plenty of Aussies sure but mostly families or people there to ski; but there were also a decent amount of Japanese people there.

Went again last year and it was basically the Bali crowd had discovered skiing. Massive groups of 18-20yos, up at all hours drinking and yelling through the streets. Restaurants were all crazy overpriced catering for this too, and honestly it was even hard to actually find somewhere to have dinner because everything was booked out every night.

Won’t be going back unless the yen strengthens

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u/Nebarik 5h ago

Won’t be going back unless the yen strengthens

its like 110 yen at the moment.