THE HISTORY OF SNOWBOARDING IN JAPAN... according to Burton
Yeah thats Craig Kelly... Legend.
It was 1971 when Shinzo Tanuma, the grandfather of Japanese surfing, took his surfboard,
looked up at the snow-covered mountains and kick-started a new era of Japanese recreation.
With his introduction of Japan’s earliest snowboard, the Japanese got their first glimpse of what is
now one of the fastest growing sports in the world.
But Japan’s new appetite for snow sliding fun didn’t begin to be fulfilled until eight years later,
when Pioneer Moss Ltd., Japan’s first domestic snowboard company, launched the Snowstick.
A surfboard for snow, the Snowstick was instantly embraced by the Japanese surfing community.
Although the Snowstick took off, its production couldn’t keep up with the new sport’s popularity.
Throughout the early 1980s, the demand for good gear was overwhelming.
At the same time, Jake Burton Carpenter, founder of Burton Snowboards, the largest snowboard
brand in the world, was looking to expand his snowboard distribution beyond the US. In 1982,
through the newly founded Japanese Snowboarding Association (JSBA), the Japan Snowsurfing
Association and the Japan Surf Association, Burton Snowboards and other snowboard
companies began to distribute equipment and gear to Japanese riders.
As sophisticated equipment became increasingly available to riders in Japan, snowboarding’s
uncontrollable momentum picked up, and the Japan Surf Association and the JSBA recognized
that this “silly fad” was not going away. In 1982 they proudly held the first Japanese national
snowboarding contests, the All Japan Snowboard Championship and the All Japan Snowsurfing
Championship. It was through these competitions, held in collaboration with the North American
Snowboard Association (NASBA), that modern advances in the sport were introduced in Japan.
Suddenly, products like the Burton Cruzer, featuring fixed bindings, began appearing in Japan,
becoming the first modern snowboards sold there. Also new on the scene was the Burton
Express. A full-scale alpine race board without a center fin, the Express was another example of
high-tech US equipment that made quite an impression in Japan.
While snowboarding was popular, it remained far from mainstream as it struggled to reach all
mountains in Japan. Not until the late 1980s did articles focusing on snowboarding begin to
appear in surfing and windsurfing magazines, along with several snowboard dealer-issued free
papers. Then in 1989, the first snowboard-specific magazine, Snowstyle, hit the newsstands.
Snowstyle featured over 30 snowboarding brands, such as Burton, Sims and Kemper, along with
dealer location lists and resort information.
In 1990, snowboarding was established as a profession, with 36 professional snowboarders
worldwide recognized by the ISA (International Snowboard Association, predecessor to ISF) and
JSBA. Soon, the first international competition, the ISA World Cup, was held at Rusutsu in
Hokkaido, with a pro tour circuit following the next year. Shortly after, JSBA merged with the
Japan Snowsurfing Association and joined the newly established International Snowboard
Federation (ISF), forming an establishment that strongly supported the popularization of
snowboarding. That same year, the International Snowboard Federation helped Japan’s riders
participate in international competitions held all over the world.
As Japanese kids became hooked on snowboarding, the number of snowboarders and brands
available doubled each year. In 1994, there were 280 snowboarding brands available for 500,000
Japanese snowboarders. The snowboarding bug was spreading like a virus, and Japan was not
the only country to encounter the epidemic – the phenomenon was traveling throughout the
world. However, not everyone was excited about the stir the sport was creating. Resorts began
to dislike “new school” snowboarders with their baggy clothes and extravagant board graphics.
Skiers sharing the slopes with riders considered them hooligans who scraped the snow off the
mountain. Many resorts took steps to regulate the slopes, or prohibit snowboarders altogether.
A big push for snowboarding in Japan was introducing the Nippon Open to the scene back in
1993. Part of the Burton Global Open Series, a global series of events put on by Burton, the
Nippon Open has grown from a grassroots event to a global spectacle attracting riders from
around the world. Like the US Open, the original Open Snowboarding competition, the Nippon
Open welcomes all riders to compete, giving locals, amateurs and pros an equal shot at a world-
class title. 2007 marked the 15th year running for the Nippon Open, which continues to be one of
the most progressive snowboard competitions in Japan.
By the mid-90s, the snowboarding industry in Japan was in complete disarray. Riders,
manufacturers and the media wavered between the different snowboarding governing
organizations. Snowboarders themselves struggled with the abundance of equipment targeted at
them by the plethora of manufacturers. As a result, the country’s first snowboard trade
organization, the Snowboard Industrial Federation of Japan (SBJ), was founded, and it became
apparent that the snowboard industry was maturing by creating a sales network and holding
tradeshows exclusively for retail shops.
Eventually the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized the permanency of
snowboarding and established it as an Olympic sport. Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) and
the Ski Association Japan (SAJ) both announced that competitions for the Olympics were being
held, and the IOC formally debuted snowboarding at the Nagano Olympic Games in 1998. With
media from all over the world tuning into the games, snowboarding became a household sport
that the Japanese public began to recognize and respect.
Even though snowboarding has come a long way from the Japanese Snowstick, the sport is still
evolving in Japan. Unique contests like the Toyota Big Air and the Nissan X-Trail Jam draw a
world-class field of professional riders and thousands of spectators. These events continue to
stimulate riders and progress the sport in the region. Japanese pro snowboarders such as
Tadashi Fuse, Kazu Kokubo, and Junko Asazuma are also pushing the sport forward in Japan as
they win competitions around the world.
Snowboarding technology and culture continues to evolve in Japan, and Burton is there to take
the sport to the next level.
For the rest of the Burton History go Burton History Page
