Karuizawa Prince Hotel Ski Resort adds pickleball from 1 August, at what it calls Japan's 'holy land of tennis'

Karuizawa Prince Hotel Ski Resort will open pickleball courts indoors from 1 August, in its Activity Hall, Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide said. Outdoor courts follow from mid-September; the indoor season runs through 23 November, with courts open 8am to 5pm at ¥5,000 per court per hour, a rate that includes paddles and balls.

The resort has built its identity around tennis since foreign missionaries developed Karuizawa as a summer retreat in the Meiji era; the company's release dates the town's first tennis courts to the 1890s and describes Karuizawa as Japan's 'holy land of tennis.' Pickleball, played on a court about a third the size of tennis's, with paddles and a perforated ball, is now moving into that same tennis heritage.

Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide put Japan's competitive pickleball population at around 5,000 as of 2024, in its own release. Karuizawa is at least the second Prince resort to add the sport this year: Hakone Sengokuhara Prince Hotel began offering pickleball on 1 July, after converting part of its tennis courts.

The two resorts are taking different routes into the sport. Hakone Sengokuhara converted part of its tennis courts to pickleball outright; Karuizawa is starting indoors, in a hall a ski resort has little other use for in August, before adding outdoor courts in September. That indoor-first sequencing sidesteps, for now, the question Hakone faces immediately: whether pickleball ends up sharing court space with tennis, or competing for it.