Hokkaido

For most of its history Hokkaido was Ezo, the land of the Ainu, a people of hunters, fishers and traders whose language is unrelated to Japanese. From the 17th century the Matsumae clan held a foothold in the far south and controlled trade with the Ainu, whose resistance was put down in Shakushain's revolt of 1669–1672. The rest of the island remained largely Ainu territory, watched with growing anxiety as Russia expanded into the northern Pacific.

Hakodate was one of the first ports opened to foreign ships under the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa. In 1869 it saw the last stand of the shogun's loyalists, who had declared the short-lived Republic of Ezo and held out in the star-shaped fort of Goryokaku until they surrendered. That same year the Meiji government renamed the island Hokkaido and set up a colonisation office that laid out Sapporo on a grid, settled farmer-soldiers along the frontier and hired American advisers — among them William S. Clark of the Sapporo Agricultural College, remembered for the words "Boys, be ambitious". Settlers from across Japan cleared forests for farms, coal mines and fishing ports, while the Ainu lost their land and were pressed to assimilate.

In the 20th century Hokkaido became Japan's granary and dairy, and Sapporo grew into a major city, hosting the 1972 Winter Olympics. The Seikan Tunnel linked the island to Honshu by rail in 1988. The four southernmost Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as the Southern Kurils, have been administered by the Soviet Union and then Russia since 1945 and are claimed by Japan. In 2019 a national law recognised the Ainu as an Indigenous people.

Hokkaido feels younger and more open than the old provinces of Honshu. Most families arrived within the last 150 years, so there are few castle towns, local dialect is mild, and people are often described by other Japanese as relaxed and less bound by old hierarchies. Wide roads, silos, barns and grid-planned towns give the countryside an almost North American look.

The Ainu heritage is the island's deepest layer. Place names across the map — Sapporo, Shiretoko, Niseko, Otaru — come from the Ainu language, and Ainu communities keep up embroidery, woodcarving, the mukkuri mouth harp and ceremonies once centred on the bear. Upopoy, the National Ainu Museum and Park at Shiraoi, opened in 2020, and the Akanko Ainu Kotan on Lake Akan has craft shops and performances.

Winter shapes the calendar. The Sapporo Snow Festival fills Odori Park with giant snow and ice sculptures each February, Otaru lights its canal with lanterns, and smaller towns hold ice festivals of their own. Summer brings the Yosakoi Soran dance festival to Sapporo, and in every season the onsen, at resorts such as Noboribetsu and Jozankei, is the place to thaw out.

Hokkaido has about 5.1 million people, and more than a third of them live in Sapporo, a city of about 2 million. Asahikawa, with about 320,000 people, is the hub of the centre; Hakodate, Kushiro, Obihiro, Tomakomai and Otaru are the other main towns, and beyond them the settlements thin out quickly.

The island produces a large share of Japan's milk, potatoes, wheat, onions and sugar beet, and its fishing fleets land scallops, salmon, crab and kelp. Tourism has grown fast, especially from elsewhere in Asia and, in Niseko, from Australia. The coal towns have faded: Yubari, once a mining centre, went bankrupt in 2007 and has lost most of its population.

Depopulation is the defining issue. Rural towns are ageing and emptying, JR Hokkaido has closed several lines and plans further cuts, and farms struggle to find successors. Winter structures daily life, from the ritual of shovelling snow each morning to months of driving on snow and ice.

Hokkaido is Japan's larder, and its food is built on seafood, dairy and potatoes. Sapporo gave the country miso ramen, often topped with butter and sweetcorn; Hakodate is known for a clear salt-based shio ramen and Asahikawa for a soy-based bowl. Jingisukan, or Genghis Khan, is mutton and vegetables grilled on a domed iron pan, and soup curry, a thin spiced broth with whole vegetables and chicken, is a Sapporo invention. Zangi is the local style of fried chicken.

Seafood is the main draw: kaisendon, rice bowls heaped with uni (sea urchin), ikura (salmon roe) and scallops, eaten at Hakodate's morning market; king, snow and hairy crab; ishikari nabe, a salmon and vegetable hotpot flavoured with miso; and ruibe, thin slices of frozen raw salmon from Ainu tradition. Jaga bata, a steamed potato with butter, is sold at festivals.

Dairy shows up in soft-serve ice cream, cheeses and chocolates, while Yubari's orange-fleshed melons are sold as luxury gifts. Shiroi Koibito biscuits and Rokkatei's raisin-butter sandwiches are the standard souvenirs. Sapporo Beer traces its origins to a brewery founded by the colonisation office in 1876, and Nikka's first distillery at Yoichi, opened in 1934, makes some of Japan's best-known whisky.

Sapporo is the base: Odori Park, scene of the Snow Festival, the wooden Clock Tower from the agricultural college, the Sapporo Beer Museum, the nightlife of Susukino and the view from Mount Moiwa. Otaru, west along the coast, has a restored canal lined with stone warehouses, glass workshops and sushi counters. South-west, Niseko's resorts on Mount Annupuri are famous for powder snow and face the cone of Mount Yotei; Lake Toya, Lake Shikotsu and the steaming Jigokudani, or Hell Valley, above Noboribetsu lie within Shikotsu-Toya National Park.

Hakodate, at the southern tip, is best seen from Mount Hakodate at night, when the city's lights fill the narrow neck of land between Hakodate Bay and the Tsugaru Strait. Below lie the star fort of Goryokaku, the hillside Motomachi district of Orthodox and Catholic churches and old consulates, the red-brick warehouses on the harbour and the morning market.

In the centre, the lavender fields of Furano, such as Farm Tomita, flower in July, and neighbouring Biei has patchwork hills and the Blue Pond. Daisetsuzan National Park, one of the largest in Japan, is a high volcanic plateau where a ropeway climbs Asahidake, Hokkaido's highest peak, and the cliffs of Sounkyo gorge line the Ishikari river.

The east is the wildest part. Shiretoko, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has boardwalks around the Five Lakes, brown bears on the shore and waterfalls falling into the sea; from late January drift ice from the Sea of Okhotsk packs the coast here and at Abashiri, where icebreaker cruises sail. Akan-Mashu National Park holds the clear caldera Lake Mashu and Lake Akan with its marimo moss balls, and the Kushiro Marsh is the winter home of red-crowned cranes.