Hokkaido
About Hokkaido
Hokkaido is the second largest, northernmost and least developed of Japan's four main islands. With 83,500 square kilometers in area, it represents 22.1% of Japan’s total land mass and only 5% of its population.
It is the largest prefecture in Japan, 39.7 times the size of Tokyo and equivalent to the area of Austria (83,859 km2). With almost equal areas of mountains and of plains, Hokkaido is less mountainous and hilly and has more flatlands compared with the rest of Japan. It consists of one large island and 5 smaller islands.
Sapporo is the largest city in the island of Hokkaido while Hakodate is the southernmost city.
Demography
Hokkaido has a population of 5,683,062 (according to the October 1, 2000 census), which amounts to 4.5% of the total population of Japan. It has the seventh largest population.
The population density is 72.5 people/km2, which is one-fifth the national average (
340.4 people/ km2) and the lowest of all prefectures.
Economy and Culture
With its unspoiled nature, Hokkaido attracts many outdoor lovers, including skiers and snowboarders in the colder seasons and hikers, cyclists and campers from June to September.
The gross domestic product of Hokkaido, which indicates the scale of production activity in the prefecture, is¥20,819.0 billion (FY2001), 4% of the nation’s total.
Regarding composition by industry, 3.3% (1.4% of the entire nation in calendar year 2001) of gross production is in primary industries, 21.0% (27.7% of the entire nation in calendar year 2001) in secondary industries and 77.5% (74.8% of the entire nation in calendar year 2001) in tertiary industries. The percentages of primary and tertiary industries are higher and that of secondary industries is lower than the national total. The high percentage of 11.2% of the construction industry (7.0% for the entire nation), and extremely low percentage of 9.6% of the manufacturing industry, which is below half of that for the entire nation (20.5% for the entire nation), are characteristic of Hokkaido.
In the manufacturing industry, the proportion of food, pulp/paper, and ceramics, stone and clay products is greater and that of processing and assembly-type industries, such as ordinary and electric machinery, is smaller compared with the national total.
Despite its severe natural conditions of cold weather and a long period of snowfall, Hokkaido has established northern-style agriculture consisting mainly of rice cultivation, dry-field farming, dairy farming and beef cattle breeding, through the introduction of modern agricultural technologies from the West and the improvement of production bases.
Hokkaido has an arable land area of approximately 970,000 hectares, which is nearly one-fourth of the nation’s total. It plays an important role as the largest food-supply base in Japan, and ranks first in the nation for its production of wheat, soybeans, potatoes, beets and other field crops, onions, pumpkins, corn and other vegetables, raw milk, beef and a number of other farm products.
Hokkaido’s forest area is 5.58 million hectares, which is 71% of the prefecture’s total land area and 22% of the nation’s total forest area. While 66% of forests are natural forests, 27% are artificial forests. The growing stock of forest has reached 640.36 million m2.
Hokkaido is surrounded by three seas – the Pacific Ocean, Sea of Okhotsk and Sea of Japan – and has a coastline of 3,043 km, which accounts for 9.1% of the nation’s total. There are excellent fishing grounds offshore, including the continental shelf that stretches far to the north.
The marine fishery and aquaculture production in 2001 was 1.58 million tons, 26.3% of the nation’s total (6.01 million tons), and the turnout was 287.2 billion, 17.2 % of the nation’s total (1,668.0 billion), both of which ranked first in the nation.
Climate
Hokkaido's weather is harsh in winter with lots of snowfall, below zero temperatures and frozen seas, while in summer, it does not get as hot and humid as in the other parts of the country.
There are four distinct seasons, (no rainy season!), and can be enjoyed year round.