Aman’s two mountain houses reopen in December, one in the Dolomites, one above Courchevel. The third, on a hill in Hokkaido, now carries a year: 2030.
Mount Moiwa sits at the quiet end of Niseko. The famous slopes are a short drive away, with the lift queues that come with them. Moiwa has none of that. It has birch forest, a nature reserve, and one development on it.
That development is Aman Niseko, and the brand now lists it as opening in 2030. It will be the fourth Aman in Japan, after Aman Tokyo, Amanemu on Ise-Shima and Aman Kyoto, and the first thing the group has called a destination wellness retreat in the country.
The timing says something about how long these projects run. Aman Niseko has been on the books for years. The renderings date from 2021. Hokkaido in the meantime has become one of the most contested ski markets in Asia, and Aman has spent the interval opening in Mexico, the Dolomites and Bangkok instead.
The architect
Kerry Hill drew it. The Australian architect gave Aman its Japanese vocabulary, Aman Tokyo above Otemachi, Amanemu in the Ise-Shima National Park, Aman Kyoto in its moss garden, and he died in 2018. Niseko is among the last things to carry his name.
The approach was deliberately contemporary rather than pastiche, with references threaded through to the design motifs of the Ainu, Hokkaido’s indigenous people. The buildings sit low, long and timber-faced, set into the slope rather than on top of it.
A residence at Aman Niseko, Mount Moiwa · Courtesy of Aman
The water
Niseko is onsen country, and the spa is the point of the place. Indoor and outdoor hot spring pools run through the Aman Spa, and every residence gets its own. Around them sit Finnish saunas, Watsu chambers, cold plunge pools, steam rooms, hammams and a range of experience showers.
An indoor lap pool and an aqua fitness pool look out over a terrace to the forest. Therapists will work year round across bodywork, nutrition, movement and beauty, drawing on Kampo herbal medicine, Anma and Shiatsu, and Zen meditation. A tea room sits past the spa lounge, with views over the countryside and a second life as a private function room.
Niseko sells powder. Aman has the quiet mountain next door, and it is selling the water underneath it.
The Splendid EditThe houses
Thirty suites occupy a pavilion of their own, every one facing the mountain. The main pavilion holds a living room, two restaurants, a private dining room, a bar, a whisky and cigar lounge, a library, a gallery, a boutique, and the ski retail and locker rooms that a Hokkaido winter requires.
Thirty-one Aman Residences stand free of all that, two storeys each, with one to three bedrooms and a loft mezzanine above. Terraces, entertaining space and a dedicated ski room come as standard, and owners can specify the rest.
Winter runs on skiing and snowboarding. The rest of the year the mountain gives up hiking, mountain biking and river rafting, and Hokkaido turns its other face, the one with the flower fields.
Opening year, location, architect, room and residence counts, spa and pavilion detail from aman.com, accessed 17 October 2026. Seasonal dates for Aman Rosa Alpina and Aman Le Mélézin from the same source.
Photography courtesy of Aman — © Aman, Aman Niseko