Snow Maji has begun its fifteenth season with 130 participating ski areas. We explain who qualifies, how the free tickets work and what Recruit’s long-term survey can and cannot show.
Snow Maji has opened its 2026/27 programme across 130 Japanese ski areas, giving eligible 19- to 22-year-olds up to two free lift tickets at each participating resort during their four qualifying years. The scheme, run by Recruit’s Maji Club, started on 5 November and continues until the end of the season, although the operating dates and detailed conditions vary by venue.
Eligibility is set by school-year dates rather than a visitor’s age on the day. This season’s group comprises people born from 2 April 2004 to 1 April 2008. Users need accounts with Jalan net and Maji Club, obtain the relevant web coupon, and present it with photo identification at the ticket counter. Previous uses carry over, so the allowance is not two free days at every resort in every season. After the two free tickets have been used, some venues offer a discounted rate. Anyone planning a trip should check the participating-resort page for exclusions, eligible ticket types and advance procedures before booking transport or accommodation.
The programme’s geographic reach is part of its usefulness. Recruit says three ski areas have joined for the first time this winter: Sapporo Moiwayama in Hokkaido, Snow Park Yeti near Mount Fuji and Kuju Forest Park in Oita. Four more have resumed participation, bringing seven additions to the list. A national programme does not make the experience uniform, but it lets a young visitor compare a city-edge mountain, a day-trip operation and a destination stay without the lift ticket absorbing the whole budget.
Snow Maji began in 2011 with 89 participating ski areas and a simple proposition: free lift access for 19-year-olds. The age band expanded to 19–22 for the 2024/25 season. That change matters because it gives people more time to organise a first trip and then return, rather than concentrating the offer in one year that may clash with study, work or limited transport. It also gives resorts several chances to convert a subsidised visit into a lasting habit through lessons, equipment hire, food, accommodation and a well-run first day.
To mark the programme’s fifteenth season, Recruit published a retrospective survey of people aged 30–34. It defined a ‘demand creation’ group as respondents who said that, without a service such as Snow Maji, they would not have gone skiing or snowboarding when they were 18–20. That group represented 6.2 per cent of the age cohort in the survey. Applied to the national population estimate used by Recruit, the company calculated roughly 400,000 people in total, or about 80,000 for each school year.
The follow-on figures are notable but need careful reading. Among the demand-creation group, 80.4 per cent said they had taken part in snow sports during the previous three years, compared with 66.8 per cent of other Snow Maji users and 26.9 per cent of non-users. Their reported spending on the most recent snow trip averaged ¥68,828, including accommodation, lift access, rentals, lessons, food, shopping and nearby sightseeing. Recruit estimated three-year spending of ¥379,190 per person in the group, against ¥163,003 among non-users.
These results do not prove that the free ticket caused every later trip. The classification depends on respondents recalling their own behaviour and judging what they might have done without the offer. Recruit also acknowledges that the group differed in employment, family circumstances and general appetite for travel, and says the whole difference cannot be treated as a direct programme effect. The findings are best read as evidence of an association between an accessible first experience and continued participation, not as a controlled measurement of causation.
For resort operators, the practical lesson is less about one headline expenditure figure than the sequence around the ticket. Removing the lift cost can get a newcomer through the gate, but transport information, affordable hire, clear lessons and places to stay still determine whether the day is easy enough to repeat. For eligible visitors, Snow Maji is a substantial saving, provided the coupon rules are checked first. For the industry, its value will be judged by what happens after the free days have been used.