Nagano · Winter 2026-27
Hakuba Happo-one will sell a one-day lift ticket for ¥6,400 online between 1 October and 30 November 2026, against a high-season price of ¥9,800. The eligibility column names one thing: holders of a My Number card. It sets no condition on nationality, and none on where in Japan you live.
What is on sale
The ¥6,400 day ticket saves ¥3,400 — the resort states that as 35 per cent off. The 39 per cent that leads the announcement belongs to the four-day ticket. Every ticket in the range is for ages 18 and over, and buying one requires a My Number registration at the point of purchase.
The two operators, Happo-one Kaihatsu and Hakuba Resort Development, announced this on 4 September. The resort’s own site had posted it three days earlier, and the two use different names — the press release calls it the hayawari myna ticket, the resort’s news page calls it the My Number early discount. Same product. The table states that prices include tax.
| Ticket (ages 18+) | Price | Discount as advertised |
|---|---|---|
| One day | ¥6,400 | 35% off |
| One day + ¥1,500 meal voucher | ¥7,500 | 39% off |
| Two days | ¥12,600 | 36% off |
| Three days | ¥18,300 | 38% off |
| Four days | ¥24,000 | 39% off |
Those percentages are the resort’s, and it is worth knowing what they are measured against, because the one that gets quoted is not the one most people will buy. The ¥6,400 day ticket saves ¥3,400 on the ¥9,800 adult high-season window price — 34.7 per cent, which the resort rounds to 35. The 39 per cent belongs to the four-day ticket and to the meal pack. Set that pack against a day ticket plus ¥1,500 of food and it is ¥3,800 cheaper, or about 34 per cent; strip the voucher out at face value and the lift portion works out at ¥6,000, which is where 39 per cent comes from. The resort does not publish its method, so I am not going to assert one.
The multi-day tickets are the quietly interesting ones. They are valid on any days across the season and the days need not be consecutive, so a two-day ticket at ¥12,600 covers two separate weekends. The meal voucher is spent at designated restaurants on the mountain, not anywhere.
Thirty-five per cent off what
A discount is only as good as the price it is cut from.
Happo-one publishes a rate card every autumn, and between a 2024 press release, the English page that still shows the previous season and this season’s Japanese one, three consecutive years of the adult high-season window price are on the record.
| Season | Adult one-day, window price | High-season period |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | ¥8,000 | 21 Dec 2024 – 9 Mar 2025 |
| 2025-26 | ¥8,700 | 20 Dec 2025 – 15 Mar 2026 |
| 2026-27 | ¥9,800 | 19 Dec 2026 – 22 Mar 2027 |
Up ¥1,800 in two seasons, or 22.5 per cent. The press release cites continuing price rises when it introduces the discount; it does not offer any explanation for the increase in the standard ticket, and I could not find one.
Measured against this season’s normal price, the early ticket is about 35 per cent off. Measured against what the same ticket cost two seasons ago, it is 20 per cent off. Both are true, and the second one is the number I would plan around.
That cuts both ways, and it should. If you skied Happo-one in early 2025 and paid ¥8,000 at the window, ¥6,400 genuinely beats it. If you compare only against the figure printed beside the discount, you are measuring against a price that did not exist last year.
Who qualifies
The resort’s price table has an eligibility column, and every discounted row in it carries the same phrase: those who hold a My Number card. The age band is 18 and over, and a separate line requires a My Number registration at the point of purchase. Those are the conditions the table states. It says nothing about nationality, and nothing about which prefecture you live in — unlike the resort’s December scheme, which does.
That wording is worth taking at face value, because the card is not a citizens-only document. The Ministry of Internal Affairs lists mid-to-long-term residents and special permanent residents among those who can hold one, and runs a card hotline in twelve languages — English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog, Nepali, Khmer and Burmese. On the published wording, a foreign resident holding the card appears to be included on the same footing as anyone else.
The scale is not marginal. The ministry put the card holding rate at 84.3 per cent of the resident register at the end of August 2026, with just over 104.5 million cards counted — that count includes cards registered for use overseas, which the published rate leaves out, so the two figures do not divide neatly into one another. The register itself includes foreign residents.
Two things the card is not
It is not automatic. Having a residence record in Japan means you can apply for a card. It does not mean you already hold one, and the discount needs the card, not the eligibility.
It is not something a holiday gets you. An ordinary short-term sightseeing stay does not create the residence record a card is issued from. Anyone who lived in Japan previously may be a different case — this is worth checking rather than assuming in either direction.
One more piece of legal small print, since it catches people out at renewal time. For foreign residents whose stay has a fixed end date, the card’s validity is generally capped by that period rather than running the usual ten years. Permanent residents, special permanent residents and holders of Highly Skilled Professional (ii) status are treated differently again.
October beats December
Building the Hakuba trip around it
A second My Number scheme runs later in the season, and the two are easy to confuse because the resort markets them together. Tickets for it are sold from 1 December 2026 to 22 March 2027 and can be used from 19 December to 5 May. It is not the same offer.
| The same lift-and-meal combination | Price | Extra condition |
|---|---|---|
| Early discount, sold 1 Oct – 30 Nov | ¥7,500 | None beyond the card and 18+ |
| December scheme, ages 18–39 | ¥8,100 | Must live in one of nine prefectures |
| December scheme, ages 40 and over | ¥8,400 | Must live in one of nine prefectures |
The nine are Nagano, Niigata, Toyama, Gifu, Aichi, Shizuoka, Saitama, Gunma and Yamanashi. The December scheme also has a two-day ticket at ¥13,800 open to all 47 prefectures — but the October–November two-day ticket is ¥12,600, so that loses on price as well.
Waiting costs ¥600 to ¥900 on the same combination and adds a residency test the autumn sale does not have. If you hold the card and you are reading this before 30 November, the choice is not close.
Before you click buy
Sales open at 10:00 on 1 October and close on 30 November, online only. The announcement and the price table are in Japanese. A QR code arrives by email and you exchange it for a ticket at a machine at the resort.
Nothing here is refundable. Unused days on a multi-day ticket are not refunded once you have started using it; a two-day ticket cannot be split between two people on the same day; and if the gondola and lifts do not run on your chosen day because of the weather, the resort states there is no refund for that either. You are paying before you know the conditions on the days you will ski.
When the discount is worth nothing
The ordinary rate card is far more forgiving at the edges of the season than the headline implies, and this is the thing I would most want to know before spending ¥6,400 in October.
| Period | Adult one-day | Child 6–17 |
|---|---|---|
| 1–18 Dec 2026 | ¥6,400 | ¥3,200 |
| 19 Dec 2026 – 22 Mar 2027 | ¥9,800 | ¥4,900 |
| 23 Mar – 5 May 2027 | ¥6,400 | ¥3,200 |
For a single adult day, the ¥6,400 early ticket saves nothing at all between 1 and 18 December, or from 23 March to the season’s close on 5 May. The ordinary ticket is already ¥6,400 on those dates. The resort’s own recommended window, 19 December to 22 March, is simply the stretch where the normal price is ¥9,800.
The multi-day tickets survive that test, though, which is easy to miss. Two early days at ¥12,600 still beat two ordinary shoulder days at ¥12,800; three beat three by ¥900; four by ¥1,600. Small margins, but they run the length of the season rather than only through midwinter.
Families
The discount has no children’s version — every line is 18 and over, and the resort says so explicitly. Ordinary child tickets do exist at ¥4,900 in high season, and the child rate runs to age 17, so it covers high-school students. Under-sixes ride the lifts free.
Skiers aged 65 and over
Quietly the biggest winner. The ordinary senior rate is ¥9,500, sold at the window only, on production of photo ID. The discounted ticket has no upper age limit — so a 70-year-old holding the card pays ¥6,400 and buys it online.
If you already hold the IC card
Topping up an existing Happo-one IC ticket online costs less than buying a new one: ¥9,500 against ¥9,800 in high season, or ¥28,200 for three days. Top-ups cannot be done at the counter. Useful if you ski here often and miss the autumn sale.
The English ticket page
When I checked Happo-one’s English ticket page on 5 September 2026 it was still headed “2025-2026 Ski Season”, listing a peak day pass of ¥8,700 for 20 December 2025 to 15 March 2026 and a spring season from 16 March. It contained no occurrence of “My Number” and none of “2026-2027”.
Part of that is simply timing — the announcement was four days old. But there is a structural reason the numbers are slow to travel even in Japanese. The sale dates appear as text in the resort’s news post, so they are readable and translatable. The price table does not: it is supplied as an image, so ordinary page translation and ordinary text search pass straight over the ¥6,400 and the ¥7,500. Reading them means reading the picture, which is what I did to write this.
The season pass is a different animal
Worth separating out, because it carries no My Number condition whatsoever. Early-bird and returning-holder rates run 1 October to 15 November, with normal pricing from 16 November. For the pass for ages 40 and over: ¥90,000 for a returning holder buying early, ¥95,000 early, ¥115,000 at the normal rate. Payment for the early-bird pass is by credit card only and, like everything else here, it cannot be cancelled or refunded.
The perks are more concrete than most — five per cent off food and drink at participating restaurants, ¥100 off the day baths at Happo-no-yu and Mimizuku-no-yu, and ten companion vouchers that cut a friend’s adult day ticket from ¥9,800 to ¥9,300 when they ski with you. Returning holders also get two free day-onsen passes.
Booking, honestly
We earn nothing on this lift ticket — it is sold by the resort and there is no version of it we could link you to. The accommodation and rail links below are affiliate links, and they are the only commercial thing on this page.
Hakuba village stays Matsumoto, on the rail approach Rail pass options
What you are buying
A 1998 Winter Olympics venue with 16 courses, a vertical drop of 1,071 metres, 23,000 metres of total run length and a longest descent of about 8,000 metres. Twenty-one lifts, which the operators say now run entirely on renewable energy. Our Hakuba village guide covers the rest of the valley.
Getting there
The operators put the resort about 60 minutes from the Nagano, Azumino or Itoigawa expressway exits. For trains and buses our Hakuba Station access guide has the current options, and Michi-no-Eki Hakuba is the obvious stop if you drive.
Where this sits
Happo-one is one mountain inside Hakuba Valley, so a single-resort ticket is not the only shape available. We compared the multi-resort options in this season’s early-bird passes and in the NAGANO7 pass, which covers Shiga Kogen and Nozawa rather than Happo-one.
If you are not skiing
The Kita-one quad runs as a sightseeing lift at ¥2,500 return for adults, and there is a ¥300 POW donation ticket which the resort says goes towards its environmental work. Nearby, Hakuba Ohashi gives the Northern Alps for free year-round, and the snow monkeys are the standard non-ski day out.
Common questions
Can a foreign resident of Japan buy the discounted ticket?
On the published wording, yes, provided you hold a My Number card, are 18 or over, and complete the registration at purchase. The eligibility column names the card and sets no condition on nationality or prefecture of residence. Mid-to-long-term residents and special permanent residents are among those who can hold the card.
Can a tourist buy it?
Not in practice. The ticket requires a My Number card, and the card is issued from a residence record that an ordinary short-term sightseeing stay does not create. If you previously lived in Japan your situation may differ, and that is worth checking rather than assuming either way.
How much does it actually save?
A one-day ticket falls from ¥9,800 to ¥6,400, a saving of ¥3,400, which the resort states as 35 per cent. The 39 per cent headline applies to the four-day ticket at ¥24,000 and to the one-day meal pack at ¥7,500. Two days are ¥12,600, three are ¥18,300. Worth knowing that the ¥9,800 baseline is itself ¥1,800 higher than the same ticket cost in the 2024-25 season.
Can two of us share a two-day ticket?
No. The resort states that a two-day ticket cannot be used by two people on the same day, and the same applies to the three- and four-day tickets. The days themselves can be non-consecutive and spread across the season, but the ticket belongs to one skier.
Are there child or senior versions?
No children’s ticket — every line in the discount range is 18 and over, and the resort says so explicitly. There is no senior tier either, but there is also no upper age limit, which works in seniors’ favour: the ordinary rate for 65 and over is ¥9,500 and is sold at the window only with photo ID, while the discounted ticket is ¥6,400 and sold online. Ordinary child tickets, outside the discount, are ¥4,900 in high season.
What is the December discount, and is it the same thing?
No. It is sold from 1 December 2026 to 22 March 2027, usable from 19 December to 5 May, and filtered by prefecture of residence. The one-day meal packs are ¥8,100 for ages 18–39 and ¥8,400 for 40 and over, both limited to residents of Nagano, Niigata, Toyama, Gifu, Aichi, Shizuoka, Saitama, Gunma or Yamanashi. A two-day ticket at ¥13,800 is open to all 47 prefectures. The autumn sale is cheaper and has no residency test.
Is the ticket only valid in midwinter?
It is valid on any days across the season and they need not be consecutive. The resort recommends 19 December to 22 March because that is when the ordinary price is ¥9,800. For a single day outside that window the ordinary adult ticket is ¥6,400 anyway, so the discount gains you nothing — though the two-, three- and four-day tickets still come out ahead by ¥200, ¥900 and ¥1,600 respectively.
Can foreign residents apply for a My Number card?
Yes. It is issued on application to people recorded on a residence register, which includes mid-to-long-term residents and special permanent residents. You apply through your municipality — by post, online or at a counter — and collect the card there. The Ministry of Internal Affairs runs a hotline in twelve languages for the process. For residents whose stay has a fixed end date the card’s validity is generally capped by that period, with different rules for permanent residents, special permanent residents and Highly Skilled Professional (ii) holders.
Sources
The primary documents behind every figure above
- Happo-one — news post of 1 September 2026 announcing the My Number early discount; the 2026-27 lift-ticket rate card (which also carries the December scheme); the season-pass announcement of 1 September 2026; the English ticket page as it stood on 5 September 2026
- Happo-one Kaihatsu and Hakuba Resort Development — press release of 4 September 2026, and the rate-table images attached to it, which carry the early-discount and season-pass prices
- Happo-one Ropeway Operators’ Council — press release of 30 November 2024, attached to that release as a PDF, for the 2024-25 high-season window price
- Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications — My Number Card pages on eligibility, validity periods for foreign residents and the multilingual hotline; and the card holding statistics to the end of August 2026
- Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, each credited and licence-linked in its caption
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