The government plans to ease visa requirements for foreign ski instructors to help attract skiers from abroad amid the sport's declining popularity in Japan, a government source said Saturday.
The Justice Ministry is eyeing amending the relevant ordinance as early as this summer, believing instructors with foreign language skills could help revitalize the domestic ski industry, the source said. At the same time, the ministry will also focus on preventing tourists from illegally working as ski instructors after entering Japan.
The new ordinance attached to the immigration law would stipulate a required minimum of three years experience instructing or competing in major international events such as the Olympics or world championships as a baseline for acquiring resident status as a sports instructor.
The ministry also plans to allow instructors holding the highest-level qualification issued by the Swiss-based International Ski Instructors Association as eligible for resident status, the source said.
The ISIA said about 10,700 people have the organization's top accreditation worldwide.
A panel of experts convened by the Japan Tourism Agency to help better promote winter resorts said in an interim report last June that securing instructors who can speak foreign languages was vital. However, the report also noted that stringent visa requirements presented an obstacle to achieving this goal.
The agency sent questionnaires to 129 ski schools across Japan and found 25 of the 57 school respondents said they hope to hire some 80 foreign instructors.
The ministry said in a basic immigration policy compiled last September that it would study the possible intake of more foreign workers with special knowledge or skills.
The number of people skiing or snowboarding in Japan peaked at 18 million in 1998. The figure fell to less than half of that number — 7.7 million — in 2013 due to Japan's falling birthrate and graying society.