Regions & prefectures
JapanRegions & prefectures
Hokkaidō
The great northern island: powder-snow winters, lavender summers and a cuisine built on the sea and dairy.
- Capital
- Sapporo
- Status
- Circuit (dō)
- Region
- Hokkaidō
- Must-see
- Sapporo Snow Festival
- Local specialty
- Miso ramen, crab, dairy
Settled by the Japanese state only from 1869, Hokkaidō still shows the grid layout drawn by the American engineers hired to plan it, alongside an Ainu culture the country took a century and a half to acknowledge. The island holds Japan’s wildest national parks, from the Shiretoko peninsula to the Kushiro marshes, and supplies the rest of the archipelago with milk, corn and much of its seafood.
What to see there
Places, dishes and traditions tied to this territory.
In the magazine
Articles that cover this topic.