Hokkaido
| Japan |
|
| にほん • 日本 • にっぽん |
| Nihon or Nippon |
| Regions |
| Hokkaido |
| Honshu |
| Tohoku |
| Akita • Aomori • Fukushima |
| Iwate • Miyagi • Yamagata |
| Kanto |
| Chiba • Gunma • Ibaraki |
| Kanagawa • Saitama • Tochigi |
| Tokyo Greater Tokyo Area |
| Chubu |
| Aichi • Fukui • Gifu |
| Ishikawa • Nagano • Niigata |
| Shizuoka • Toyama • Yamanashi |
| Kansai |
| Hyogo • Kyoto • Mie |
| Nara • Osaka |
| Shiga • Wakayama |
| Chugoku |
| Hiroshima • Okayama |
| Shimane • Tottori • Yamaguchi |
| Shikoku |
| Ehime • Kagawa |
| Kochi • Tokushima |
| Kyushu |
| Fukuoka • Kagoshima |
| Kumamoto • Miyazaki |
| Nagasaki • Oita • Saga |
| Ryukyu Islands |
| Okinawa |
| History |
| Culture |
Hokkaido (北海道 Hokkaidoo) is the second-largest and most northerly of the four main islands of Japan. The island comprises a single administrative division, with 5,601,000 people recorded living there in 2006.[1] This is approximately 4% of the total population of Japan, making its population the second-smallest of the four largest islands, above that of Shikoku. About a third of the population live in or around the capital, Sapporo (札幌市 Sapporo-shi), which is famous for the annual Snow Festival (さっぽろ雪まつり Sapporo Yuki Matsuri).
Hokkaido is linked to various other parts of Japan by the Seikan Tunnel (青函トンネル Seikan Tonneru) and domestic flights. Shikoku has an extensive road network alongside more limited rail services, which allow access to the major cities of Sapporo, Hakodate (函館 Hakodate-shi) and Asahikawa (旭川市 Asahikawa-shi).
Hokkaido is also the land of one of Japan's few groups of indigenous people, the Ainu (アイヌ; the word is borrowed from the Ainu language). This group are also native to Sakhalin, the Russian island north of Hokkaido, and the disputed Kuril Islands.
Footnotes
- ↑ Japan Statistical Yearbook: 'Population by Prefecture 1920-2006'. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. .xls document.