WHEN entering one of Niseko Home Designs (NHD) houses, you can feel the warmth of Japanese culture. Powderlife speaks with the managing director of NHD, Mr. Shigeru Uehara, an architect with carpentry experience.

Having two business degrees from both Japanese and American universities, why did you start your career as a carpenter?

By Chris Lane
Izumikyo Company client advisor

IZUMIKYO Company has had a hand in the creation of the Niseko resort area since 1973. After successfully developing such integral sites as the Hirafu Middle Village, Izumikyo, St. Moritz and Country Resort, the pioneering developer is about to release what it calls its ‘newest

By Graeme Glen
Sales manager for West Canada Properties

LAST year, in answer to the question, ‘is Niseko a bubble?’, I stated that Niseko was not a bubble, nor could it become a bubble due to the fact that growth has been fueled by private investment and not leveraged. Private money, generally, does not go where

THE world economy has taken a battering and real estate has been one of the biggest casualties. However, the Niseko property market has weathered the storm front well.

For a long time now, perhaps largely driven by the local Japanese pessimism founded on their past experience, there has been a view that the Niseko boom was an unsustainable