JJapan

5-year-old boy dies after being trapped in ski lift at resort in Hokkaido

  • December 29, 2025

A 5-year-old boy died after his right arm became trapped in a ski lift at a resort in northern Japan on Sunday, local authorities said.

Firefighters said they received an emergency call from the boy's mother at about 10 a.m. saying the boy was trapped on the conveyor-belt lift in Otaru, Hokkaido.

The boy fell as he was trying to get off the lift, which connects the facility's parking lot and the ski slope, according to local police and firefighters. The lift has no handrail.

The ski resort remained open after the accident. A couple in their 40s who passed near the site said they heard someone believed to be connected to the boy repeatedly shouting words of encouragement from inside an area cordoned off with blue tarps.

A man in his 70s, who said he often visits the ski resort, said there were several points on the lift where the slope changes and the belt shakes, adding he himself had stumbled there before and had thought it was dangerous.

by SkyInJapan

15 comments

  2. For someone who has worked around these type of ‘magic carpet’ lifts .. I am purely speculating but perhaps he fell along side the moving sidewalk and became trapped with the rollers that convey the carpet. Sometimes the loading and unloading area has access to the top and bottom equipment and the carpet was exposed. (This access is usually closed off with guards or covers)

    I am not saying this is the type of ski lift that was involved, but it could be similar [YouTube video of how they work](https://youtu.be/g1aC90H4WUg?si=R1VBWzfUsfiKIn0f) and similar [here](https://www.sunkidworld.com/en/products/moving-carpet/)

  5. My condolences to the parents.

    It’s so tragic these accidents happen due to ignorance for proper maintenance, and perhaps supervisor from parents.

  9. I don’t understand how he would have died. It looks like a smooth flat escalator. Where is a part where your arm could get stuck?

    My deepest condolences to the parents. What a horrible accident.

  10. In the US there’s always someone supervising the end and beginning of each lift and belt. These aren’t like escalators they are very dangerous machines.

  11. I’m so confused, conveyor belt lifts are probably the safest kind of lift there is. I’ve never seen one that had hand rails. How do you even get injured by it let alone die? It’s like a moving walkway in airports

  13. Being in tokyo for a holiday, I’ve noticed there’s a massive gap between the platform and the train at some stations. Does everyone just learn to avoid it? One could easily just fall through.

    I know, completely different problem, and I feel for the parents deeply. Just curious about the management of safety hazards in japan.

  14. The problem with Japan is everything is fanatically set around strict rules. But when just anything gets out of the rule book, people get completely frozen and dumb, fucked up and unable to act. You sometimes see catastrophes in slow motion if they are not previously set in the rule book and no body does anything.

  15. This incident may be an unfortunate consequence of the shady dealings surrounding the acquisition of a Japanese resort facility by Chinese capital.

    Reasons for this speculation:

    ・The control panel for the outdoor conveyor belt has labels in both Chinese and English → Not compliant with Japanese standards.

    ・The representative of the company operating the facility is Chinese.

    Those with time can read the report for more details.

    [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OTWoQSJHZBZQXhz_DAyioBNcKP1m_5Jx/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OTWoQSJHZBZQXhz_DAyioBNcKP1m_5Jx/view?usp=sharing)

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