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

This photo shows the site of an accident involving a 5-year-old boy at a ski resort in Otaru, Hokkaido, on Dec. 28, 2025. (Kyodo)

SAPPORO (Kyodo) — 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.