Kamori Kanko links two resorts into what it calls Japan's largest pickleball-court operation

Kamori Kanko, the Sapporo-based resort operator, said on August 3 that it has linked two of its properties (Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido and Izu Resort Villa in Shizuoka) into a combined 28 outdoor pickleball courts, which it called Japan's largest dedicated pickleball-court operation.

Rusutsu opened 8 courts in July 2025, according to the company; Izu Resort Villa added a further 20 on July 20 this year. Kamori Kanko said it plans to build 16 more courts at Rusutsu by June 2027, taking that property to 24 courts and the group's combined total to 44. All the courts are certified by the Japan Pickleball Federation (Pickleball Japan, or PJ), the company said, and Rusutsu also runs "night pickleball" sessions under blacklight after dark.

The company framed the build-out around sports tourism and wellness, aiming the courts at families, active seniors and international visitors. It said it intends to host tournaments, training camps and corporate events across the two sites, aiming to turn a still-niche sport in Japan into a recurring reason to book a stay, not just a single afternoon's activity.

The bet reads differently from the pickleball investments floortok has tracked this year in and around Tokyo — Sansan and Asics's court in Ikebukuro, Sansan's sponsorship of the Japan Grand Slam, transcosmos taking on a professional team — all aimed at players who show up for an evening session near the office. Kamori Kanko is instead putting courts on resort land guests already travel to stay overnight at. Rusutsu in particular is a ski resort whose slopes go quiet every summer; devoting part of that idle land to a warm-weather sport is a straightforward way to fill rooms outside the snow season, rather than a wellness amenity bolted onto business as usual.