Hokkaido

Hokkaido exists because Japan needed a colony and a buffer against Russia. For fifteen thousand years, the Ainu people lived as hunter-gatherers on this northern island, trading furs and fish with the mainland. Then in 1868, following the Meiji Restoration, Japan annexed the island, renamed it Hokkaido ("Northern Sea Circuit"), and launched a colonization campaign that dispossessed the Ainu and remade the land for agriculture.

The colonizers brought American expertise. In 1876, William S. Clark arrived from Massachusetts to found an agricultural college in Sapporo. His parting words—"Boys, be ambitious!"—became Hokkaido's unofficial motto, still displayed on public buildings. Clark's mission succeeded: farms averaging 26 hectares per farmer (eleven times the national average) now produce one-quarter of Japan's arable output. Hokkaido leads Japan in wheat, soybeans, potatoes, dairy, beef, and timber. The fishing fleet harvests more marine products than any other prefecture.

Today, Hokkaido's ¥20 trillion economy matches Finland's or Ireland's. Tourism has become the growth engine: 8.92 million international visitors in 2024 surpassed all previous records. Niseko's powder snow draws skiers from Australia; food tourism accounts for 25% of visitors seeking "Japan's Gourmet Kingdom." But the demographic math is unforgiving—Hokkaido's population has fallen from 5.7 million to 5.1 million since 2000. By 2026, Hokkaido faces a choice every resource-rich periphery confronts: can tourism and premium agriculture sustain an economy built on extraction, or does the frontier finally close?