Tag - hokkaido

 
 

HOKKAIDO

No need to go foraging for one of bears' favorite wild vegetables for this dish — just pick it up at your local farmer's market instead.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Jun 28, 2026
Smash tacos with bear-approved veggies
Alpine leeks are a forageable example of the “sansai” (wild edible plants) that make springtime a bounty of flavors across Japan’s countryside — for humans and bear-kind alike.
A former college student was sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with a case in which a 20-year-old man was beaten to death by six people at a park Hokkaido in 2024.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 26, 2026
Three youths jailed over fatal assault of college student in Hokkaido
The case involved a 20-year-old student being beaten to death by six people in a park in 2024.
Flowers laid near Kamui bridge, the scene of a 17-year-old high school girl's death, in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, June 2024
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 22, 2026
Woman sentenced to 27 years over death of high school girl
Prosecutors had sought 27 years, arguing the “extremely cruel and malicious” crime the woman had been the ringleader of had “trampled on the victim’s dignity.”
Internal affairs minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (center) speaks during a meeting with Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki (left) and Yubari Mayor Tsukasa Atsuya (right) in Yubari, Hokkaido, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2026
Bankruptcy-induced salary cuts for Yubari city workers to end
The announcement was made on the 20th anniversary of the city’s declaration of financial collapse.
Seiichi Katsurada, president of tour boat company Shiretoko Yuransen, at the Kushiro District Court in Hokkaido on Wednesday. Katsurada has been sentenced to five years in prison over a deadly boat sinking in 2022.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 17, 2026
Hokkaido tour boat operator sentenced to five years’ jail over fatal 2022 sinking
Eighteen passengers and two crew members died after a tour boat sank on April 23, 2022, off the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido, with six passengers still unaccounted for.
The members of TV Tairiku Ondo — (from left) Harea Togari, Ryuji Chiyotani, Kotaro Suzuki and Hiroto Yanagawa — met as high school students in Sapporo and went viral in 2024 with an energetic 90-second track.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 12, 2026
TV Tairiku Ondo channels the chaotic creativity of youth
After going viral with a 90-second track in 2024, the rock quartet from Hokkaido has been hitting stages big and small and working hard on a debut album.
A court ruling will be handed down on June 22 for a woman suspected of killing a 17-year-old girl in Hokkaido in 2024.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 9, 2026
Prosecutors seek 27-year sentence for suspect in murder of Hokkaido girl
Public prosecutors have alleged that Riko Uchida and others “applied some physical force” to the high school girl, who was embroiled in a dispute over social media photos.
Californians Ben and Ariella Jacoby, who married with Mount Fuji as their backdrop, are part of a growing trend of inbound weddings in Japan.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 8, 2026
Foreign couples are turning Japan into a wedding destination
Personal and cultural connections, as well as a weak yen, are driving more foreign couples to choose Japan to mark major life events.
Former residents of the Northern Territories join hands aboard the exchange ship Etopirika, in July last year.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2026
Ex-residents to hold memorial services near Japan-claimed isles
Former residents of Russian-held northwestern Pacific islands claimed by Japan will hold memorial services for their ancestors at sea and in the air between July 25 and Nov. 7, the prefectural government of Hokkaido said Friday.
When bells aren’t enough to prevent encounters with bears, outdoorspeople in Japan now have a wide range of deterrents to choose from.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 6, 2026
In Japan, a bull market for bear deterrents
With no end in sight to the rise in bear encounters, manufacturers are bringing new kinds of deterrents to the market.
Farooq Soban, a Pakistani resident of Ebetsu, Hokkaido, points to damage from a fire that destroyed a local mosque in the city, on April 29.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jun 1, 2026
Mosque fire shows need for better communication with foreign residents
The fire in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, exposed the need for deeper cooperation between Japanese and Pakistani residents on a broad range of issues.
Japan's population saw the largest decline on record in 2025, but Tokyo continued to mark a rise in the number of residents.
JAPAN
May 29, 2026
Japan’s 2025 census reflects steepest fall in population on record, data shows
Preliminary data shows the nation’s headcount shrank 2.5%, the third straight decline in the nationwide survey conducted every five years.
Riko Uchida is standing trial over the death of a 17-year-old high school girl, who fell from a suspension bridge in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, in 2024.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 25, 2026
Woman accused of murder in Hokkaido girl’s fall from bridge pleads not guilty
Another accused of conspiring in the murder is currently serving a 23-year sentence.
Three defendants are on trial over suspected robbery resulting in death and other offenses in connection with the death of 20-year-old Tomoya Hase.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 25, 2026
Three people plead guilty over fatal 2024 assault of Hokkaido university student
A total of six people have been indicted in the case of suspected robbery resulting in the death of a 20-year-old in Ebetsu, Hokkaido.
A box of two Yubari melons sold for a record-high ¥5.8 million at the season’s first auction in Sapporo on Friday.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2026
Yubari melons fetch record ¥5.8 million at first auction of season
The melons will go on display at Keio Store’s Sakuragaoka supermarket in western Tokyo before tasting events begin next week.
Tohoku University professor Reishi Takashima speaks at a news conference in Katsuyama, Fukui Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 21, 2026
Asteroid traces found in Japan may be linked to extinction of dinosaurs
The discovery of traces of an asteroid in Hokkaido is the first-ever confirmation of such traces in Japan, according to the announcement from the team of Japanese researchers.
The Hokkaido Shinkansen Line went into service on March 26, 2016.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 19, 2026
Japan antitrust watchdog raids firms in Hokkaido Shinkansen bid-rigging probe
The probes targeted nine construction companies and a government-linked railway infrastructure agency.
United Airlines will launch daily round-trip service between Narita International Airport and Chicago from Oct. 24, becoming the first U.S. carrier to operate the route.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 15, 2026
United Airlines to open two new routes to Japan from Chicago and San Francisco
The U.S. airline will have one daily flight connecting Narita International Airport with Chicago and three per week between New Chitose Airport and San Francisco in the winter.
Asian black bear sightings reached an all-time high of 50,776 in fiscal 2025, the environment ministry announced Monday.
JAPAN / Society
May 12, 2026
Black bear sightings in Japan more than doubled in 2025
The total number of deaths caused by bear attacks in fiscal 2025 was 13, the highest in recorded history.
Members of the Hokkaido Ainu Association place returned remains in a cemetery at the national Ainu cultural facility and perform a memorial service on Friday in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.
JAPAN
May 9, 2026
Ainu indigenous group demands return of ancestors’ remains
The group filed a lawsuit demanding that the remains of 279 Ainu ancestors held by a state facility be returned to their descendants.

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival