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Natural disasters can degrade primate habitat and alter feeding behavior. Here, we examined the influence of unusually heavy snow on diet and feeding‐site use by Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) in northern Japan. To compare the winter‐feeding behavior under different snow conditions, we recorded the plant species foraged on by macaques in multiple transects of the Shirakami Mountains from 2008 to 2012 (excluding 2011). We used cluster analysis to describe foraged plant assemblages, and applied multiple dimensional scaling and decision tree modeling to evaluate annual variation in feeding‐site use by macaques. Our cluster analysis revealed five types of foraged plant assemblages. The proportion of each type present in transects varied considerably across the years, indicating that the diet of macaques in heavy snow conditions was influenced more by resource accessibility than by preference …