THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 29, 2025 at 14:40 JST
OTARU, Hokkaido—A 5-year-old boy died after falling on an outdoor escalator at a ski slope here and getting his right arm caught in the winding mechanism at the top on Dec. 28.
Hinata Goto, a kindergartener who came to the Asari Ski Resort from Sapporo’s Higashi Ward with his family, was riding the belt-conveyor escalator leading from the parking lot to the slopes with his mother.
He was dressed in ski wear and ski boots.
According to local police and the fire department, the mother made an emergency call around 10 a.m. about her son being caught in the escalator.
The boy was freed from the escalator about 40 minutes after the call but was unconscious. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The escalator is about 60 centimeters wide, barely enough for one adult to stand, and has no handrails.
Regular visitors said the escalator is convenient because it allows them to move between the parking lot and the slopes without using stairs.
Hokkaido police are investigating the incident.
Officials at the ski resort in Otaru’s Asarigawa Onsen district said a maintenance cover is located at the escalator’s end point. If this cover opens for any reason, such as an object getting caught, a safety mechanism is designed to immediately stop the escalator.
However, sources at the scene told The Asahi Shimbun that the emergency safety mechanism was not activated when the boy got caught, and the escalator halted only after the boy’s mother pushed an emergency stop button installed at the end point.
Asari Ski Resort is located about 7 kilometers southwest of JR Otaru Station, around an hour’s drive from central Sapporo.
Its proximity to the Asarigawa Onsen hot spring resort and an expressway interchange makes it popular among visitors from both within and outside Hokkaido.
(This article was written by Seiichiro Kuchiki and Chieko Hara.)
Areas around Niseko join the tourism boom in Hokkaido
March 26, 2025
Ski resort with escalator opens beside Fighters’ baseball stadium
November 13, 2023
Most bear sprays are imports and hard to find as demands soars
September 18, 2024
Ski resort town Niseko plans fixed-rate lodge tax on guests
March 25, 2023
Club Med set to open third resort in Hokkaido later this year
September 13, 2022
‘Etiquette’ for escalators poses danger for those with disabilities
November 27, 2021
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
The outdoor escalator where a 5-year-old boy’s arm got caught at the Asari Ski Resort in Otaru, Hokkaido, on Dec. 28 (Chieko Hara)
