Dale Goulding is a tough man to pin down. As a skier with more than 30 years’ experience, you’d expect him to have the jump on you when it comes to getting down a slope. But the owner of Deep Powder Tours – a company whose sole product is ski and snowboarding tours in Japan – can be just as tricky to catch in his Sydney office. Getting an hour of his time can involve tagging along to the bank, his solicitor’s office and the local sandwich shop, as well as taking time out as he fields phone calls and puts out office spot-fires.
It’s not so much the nature of the bloke as the nature of his business. Skiing and snowboarding in Japan has exploded in the past decade and interest from Aussie snow fans shows no signs of abating. From a visitor base of virtually nothing in the early 1990s, more than 20,000 Antipodeans now head to Hokkaido each year to sample some of the deepest powder riding in the world.
Australians are up to their necks
in snow business there, with everyone from the three major tour operators to property developers and lodge and restaurant owners enjoying an unprecedented boom. But as in the
rest of Japan, it isn’t a case of simply turning up to make your fortune. You’ll need perseverance, patience, plenty
of cultural sensitivity – and the ability to tackle a few bumps on and off the piste.
“Australia’s interest hasn’t stopped – we’ve had percentages on percentages for years,” says Goulding, who formed Deep Powder Tours with his brother Glenn in 1995 when they took a tour group of 15 Australians to ski at Niseko (about two and a half hours from Hokkaido’s capital, Sapporo). “Gone are the 100 per cent days but we are still receiving a good 25 per cent increase in sales [annually].”
Along with this increase in skiers, there’s been a corresponding spike in property values in and around Niseko’s resort town of Hirafu, but even that comes with a benefit.
“You’ll get a new 45-apartment block but they’ll only throw in one or two restaurants,” says Goulding. “So there are opportunities there in hospitality, but there’s also other services required such as chiropractors, physios and the media.”
Niseko’s incredible boom has had another knock-on effect: opening people’s minds to the 400-odd other ski areas in Japan, which are spread throughout Hokkaido and the main island of Honshu.
The Nagano prefecture in the centre of Honshu – home to the 1998 Winter Olympics – is looking like the next hot spot for Australian investment. Steven Bradbury, who famously stayed on his feet to win a speed skating gold medal at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, is part of a syndicate that recently bought into the region. “You can still get a very well placed 10-bedroom lodge in Hakuba [a seven-mountain multi-resort in the area],” says Goulding. “I think people can do well there.”
OTHER OPPORTUNITIES
If the cold isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other places where business-minded Australians can make their
mark in Japan. After all, it’s still one
of Australia’s biggest markets, taking
17 per cent of our exports in 2006.
Tim Lester, Chairman of the Australian & New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan, says there are plenty of opportunities for Australian business in food, technology, aged care and toll roads. He sees the recent Australian push into China as something of a preoccupation, and questions whether all that glitters there really is gold.
“[Japan is] a mature market – there’s a lot of wealth here – and there is a high level of consumerism,” he explains. “Contrast it with China where, sure there’s a huge market, but you don’t have established rule of law or a legal framework where the courts are reliable. Yes, there are too many knowns in Japan – but at least they are known.”
He’s alluding to the modern bugbear for Australian businesses in Japan. Costs and language are no longer problems – with the Australian dollar strong and an increase in the number of skilled linguists – but now red tape and perceived prevarication are seen as stumbling blocks by many prospective exporters.
Lester describes Japan as “bureaucratic”. In an industry such as agriculture it can be particularly frustrating, he says, because there might be a global standard to which Japan adds its own extra standards. Goulding, who’s operated in Japan for more than a dozen years, says while decisions can often take a long time, it’s worth just “chilling out”.
“Don’t go in there with all guns blazing, thinking you are going to take over the world and show the Japanese how you run a business,” he advises.
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