is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in Kamikawa Subprefecture,

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is the capital of the subprefecture, and the second-largest city in Hokkaido, after

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

. It has been a core city since April 1, 2000. The city is currently well known for the Asahiyama Zoo , the Asahikawa ramen and a Ski resort city. On July 31, 2011, the city had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 352,105, with 173,961

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

s, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of 470.96 persons per km² (1,219.8 persons per sq. mi.). The total area is . Asahikawa joined

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

's Network of Creative Cities as a Design City on October 31, 2019 on the occasion of World Cities’ Day.

Overview

On August 1, 1922, Asahikawa was founded as Asahikawa ''City''. As the central city in northern Hokkaido, Asahikawa has been influential in industry and commerce. There are about 130 rivers and streams including the Ishikari River and Chūbetsu River, and over 740 bridges in the city. Asahibashi, a bridge over Ishikari River, has been one of the symbols of Asahikawa since its completion in 1932, and it was also registered as one of the Hokkaido Heritage sites on October 22, 2001. Every winter, the Asahikawa Winter Festival is held on the bank of the Ishikari River, making use of Asahikawa's cold climate and snow. On January 25, 1902, a weather station recorded , the lowest temperature in Japanese history. Due to its climate and location surrounded by mountains, there are some ski resorts in the outskirts of the city.

Name

The

Ainu Ainu or Aynu may refer to: *Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East *Ainu languages, a family of languages **Ainu language of Hokkaido **Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands **Sakhalin Ainu la ...

called the Asahi River ''Chiu Pet'' meaning "River of Waves", but it was misunderstood as ''Chup Pet'', meaning "Sun River", and so it came to be called Asahi River in Japanese (Asahi meaning "morning sun").

History

Asahikawa was populated by the mainland Japanese in the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

(1868 – July 1912) as a ''

tondenhei The were military settler colonists recruited after the Meiji Restoration to develop and defend Japan's northern frontier in Hokkaidō and Karafuto against foreign nations, particularly Imperial Russia. (The term tonden comes from ancient China, ...

'', or state-sponsored farmer-militia settlement. Kamikawa

District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

set up under Ishikari Province with the villages of Asahikawa, Nagayama and Kamui in 1890. *1900 Asahikawa Village becomes Asahikawa

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

*1914 Asahikawa Town becomes Asahikawa-'' ku'' Asahikawa was elevated to city status in 1922. Asahikawa thrived as a military city before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when the

IJA 7th Division was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call-sign was the . The 7th Division was formed in Sapporo, Hokkaidō on 12 May 1888, as the first new infantry division formed by the reorganization of the Imperial Japanese Army from ...

was posted there. During the closing stages of the war, Asahikawa was bombed by American naval aircraft in July 1945. Today, the 2nd Division of the Northern Army of the

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

is headquartered in Asahikawa. *1955 Kamui Village and Etanbetsu Village merge with Asahikawa *1961 Nagayama Town merged *1963 Higashi-Asahikawa Town merged *1967 Asahiyama Zoo opened *1968 Kagura Town merged *1971 Higashi-Takasu Town merged *1972 Japan's first permanent pedestrian mall Heiwadōri Shopping Park opened *April 1, 2000 Asahikawa becomes a core city

Geography

Climate

The climate is hemiboreal humid continental (''Dfb,'' according to Köppen classification). Asahikawa winters are long and cold, with below-freezing average monthly temperatures from November through March. The city also sees an extraordinary amount of snowfall, averaging just under of snow per year. Summers are generally warm and humid in Asahikawa, with average high temperatures in the warmest months hovering around . Spring and autumn are generally short and transitional in the city. It is one of the coldest

Japanese cities A is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as and , with the difference that they are not a component of . Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law of 1947. C ...

as well as one of the most "continental". Japan's lowest temperature ever () was recorded in Asahikawa, colder than other cities registered in

, but warmer in absolute numbers than

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...

. On January 12, 1909 the temperature did not rise above , being one of the coldest in history. Some sources consider it the coldest city in

Economy

Asahikawa developed as an industrial center in Hokkaido after

. The city is noted for its lumber and brewing industries, as well as the production of furniture and paper pulp.

Education

Universities

National

Asahikawa Medical University , , or AMU, is a national university and medical school in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan. Established in 1973, the university has one faculty, Faculty of Medicine, consisting of Department of Medicine and Department of Nursing. The affiliated Asahi ...

Hokkaido University of Education is a national public university administered by the government of Japan. It has five campuses in Hokkaido, Japan. The main campus is on the outskirts of Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido. Hokkaido University of Education, Sapporo (HUES) is the la ...

, Asahikawa Campus

Private

Asahikawa University is a public coeducational university in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan. Established in 1898, it was chartered as a university in 1968. It is officially accredited/recognized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The ...

* Tokai University (Previously: the Asahikawa Campus of

Hokkaido Tokai University was a university with two campuses in Hokkaido, Japan: the Sapporo campus in Minami-ku, which housed the School of Engineering and the School of International Cultural Relations; and the Asahikawa is a city in Kamikawa Subprefecture, Hokkai ...

)

Colleges

* Asahikawa National College of Technology

High schools

Public

* Hokkaido Asahikawa Higashi High school * Hokkaido Asahikawa Kita High School * Hokkaido Asahikawa Nishi High School * Hokkaido Asahikawa Minami High School * Hokkaido Asahikawa Eiryo High school * Hokkaido Asahikawa Agricultural High School (Nogyo) * Hokkaido Asahikawa Commercial High School (Shogyo) * Hokkaido Asahikawa Technical High School (Kogyo)

Private

* Asahikawa Ryukoku High School * Asahikawa Fuji Girls' High School * Asahikawa Jitsugyo High School * Asahikawa Meisei High School * Asahikawa University High School * Ikegami Gakuen High School, Asahikawa Campus * Asahikawa Tosei High School

Transportation

Airport

Asahikawa is served by

Asahikawa Airport , is a single-runway regional airport in Hokkaidō, Japan, straddling the cities of Asahikawa and Higashikagura. History Planning of the airport began in the late 1950s. The site was chosen in November 1960 and received government approval in ...

which stretches over the outskirts of Asahikawa City and Higashikagura, Hokkaido. The airport was first proposed by the Asahikawa City Council in 1955, opened in 1961, and daily flights to Tokyo started in 1970. The present terminal of Asahikawa Airport opened in 2000. It is a second class airport, and also a single-runway regional airport. It serves domestic destinations including

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, but some airlines offer destinations in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. EVA Air added Asahikawa as a destination from Taipei on May 2, 2013.

Rail

Asahikawa is one of the major rail hubs of Hokkaido. The Hakodate Main Line connects Asahikawa to

Hakodate is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 279,851 with 143,221 households, and a population density of 412.8 ...

in the south of Hokkaido, and the Sōya Main Line connects Asahikawa with Wakkanai at the north of Hokkaido. The

Sekihoku Main Line is a railway line in Hokkaido, Japan, operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) between in Asahikawa and Abashiri Station in Abashiri. The name comes from the first Kanji characters of and , names of ancient provinces along the lin ...

connects the city with Abashiri on the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...

. The

Furano Line The is part of the Hokkaido Railway Company network in Hokkaidō, Japan. It connects Furano Station in the city of Furano and Asahikawa Station in the city of Asahikawa. Popular with tourists, it has recently come to serve commuters in the be ...

connects Abashiri with nearby Biei and Furano. ; JR Hokkaido *Hakodate Main Line：- Asahikawa– Chikabumi *Sōya Main Line：- Asahikawa– Asahikawa-Yojō– Shin-Asahikawa– Nagayama– Kita-Nagayama *Sekihoku Main Line：- Shin-Asahikawa– Minami-Nagayama– Higashi-Asahikawa– Sakuraoka *Furano Line: Asahikawa– Kaguraoka– Midorigaoka– Nishi-Goryō– Nishi-Mizuho– Nishi-Kagura– Nishi-Seiwa– Chiyogaoka

Bus

Municipal buses also serve the city.

Specialties

* Asahikawa

Ramen is a Japanese dish, Japanese noodle dish. It consists of served in a broth; common flavors are soy sauce and miso, with typical toppings including , nori (dried seaweed), menma (bamboo shoots), and scallions. Ramen has its roots in Chinese ...

* Asahikawa furniture * Confectionery *

Sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

(Otokoyama, Takasago, Taisetsunokura) * Taisetsu Microbrew Beer "Taisetsu ji-beer" * Asahikawa mutton barbecue "Genghis Khan" * Asahikawa pork barbecue "Shio-Horumon" * Asahikawa chickein barbecue "Shinko-yaki" * Pottery/wooden handiwork (Arashiyama area) * Sushi and Seafood

Sightseeing

* Asahiyama Zoo * Ski Resorts ( Kamui Ski Links,

Santa Present Park Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

, Pippu Ski Area, Canmore Ski Village etc.) - "Hokkaido Powder Belt" * Ueno Farm ( Hokkaido Garden Path) * Asahikawa Winter Festival/Illuminations (February) * Asahikawa Station Building * Arashiyama Pottery village * Asahibashi Bridge * Asahikawa Furniture Center *

Asahikawa Kitasaito Garden is a city in Kamikawa Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital of the subprefecture, and the second-largest city in Hokkaido, after Sapporo. It has been a core city since April 1, 2000. The city is currently well known for the Asahiyama ...

* Asahikawa Museum of Sculpture in Honor of Teijiro Nakahara * Asahikawa Youth Science Museum "Saiparu" *

Ayako Miura was a Japanese novelist. She published over eighty works of both fiction and non-fiction. Many of her works are considered best-sellers, and a number have been remade as feature-length films. Her debut novel, ''Hyōten'' (氷点, "Freezing Point ...

Memorial Literature Center * Hoppo Wild Flower Garden, famous for '' Erythronium japonicum'' (Dogtooth violet) that flower in May * Hokkaido Traditional Art Craft Village * Kamikawa Shrine * Mount Tossho, also famous for ''Erythronium japonicum'' * Otokoyama Sake Brewing Museum * Romantic Road (

tree tunnel A tree tunnel is a road, lane or track where the trees on each side form a more or less continuous canopy overhead, giving the effect of a tunnel. The effect may be achieved in a formal avenue lined with trees or in a more rural setting with rando ...

and churches) * Yasushi Inoue Memorial Center

Mascots

Asahikawa's mascots are and . *Asappy is a mixture of a harbor seal and a polar bear. He wears a shirt designed after Daisetsuzan National Park with fringes that resembled ramen, his belt is designed after the Asahi Bridge and his pants were designed after the Ishikari River. His red scarf shows his status as a hero. *Yukkirin is a strong but kind snow giraffe (technically a kirin). Her dress has an apple, a snowflake and a flower motif. She wears Etanbetsu boots with fringes. Her antenna resembles snowballs, she can use them to gather information.

Sister and friendship cities

Sister cities

* Bloomington,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, United States *

Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 52,736. Normal is the smaller of two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, and Illinois' seventh most ...

, United States *

Suwon Suwon (, ) is the capital and largest city of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea's most populous province which surrounds Seoul, the national capital. Suwon lies about south of Seoul. It is traditionally known as "The City of Filial Piety". With a populati ...

Gyeonggi-do Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

, South Korea

Friendship cities

* Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia *

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

, China

Notable people

Takeshi Aono was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Asahikawa, Hokkaidō. He was attached to Aoni Production at the time of his death. He graduated from Hokkaidō Asahikawa Higashi High School. Career Aono was most known for the roles of Shiro ...

, voice actor *

Miura Ayako was a Japanese novelist. She published over eighty works of both fiction and non-fiction. Many of her works are considered best-sellers, and a number have been remade as feature-length films. Her debut novel, ''Hyōten'' (氷点, "Freezing Poin ...

, author * Haruhisa Chiba, skier *

Yuko Emoto is a Japanese judoka and Olympic champion. She won a gold medal in the ''half middleweight division'' at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.Kazuhiro Fujita is a Japanese manga artist. He graduated from Nihon University. He made his professional manga debut in ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' in 1989. He is most famous for the manga ''Ushio & Tora'', for which he won Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 1 ...

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

Nanami Hashimoto is a former Japanese model, actress, radio personality and idol singer who was a member of the Japanese idol girl group Nogizaka46. Career Hashimoto passed the first generation auditions for Nogizaka46 in August 2011. Her audition song was U ...

, idol * Yasushi Inoue, author * Kiyomi Kato, wrestler * Kitanofuji Katsuaki, sumo wrestler *

Shigeo Nakata is a Japanese wrestler and Olympic champion in Freestyle wrestling. He also won a gold medal at the 1967 World Wrestling Championships and at the 1966 Asian Games. Olympics Nakata competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City wh ...

, wrestler *

Ikumi Narita is a former Japanese volleyball player. Her maiden name is . She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. There she ended up in fifth place with the Japan women's national team. Narita played as a wing-spiker. She was named ''B ...

, volleyball player *

Victor Starffin Victor Starffin ( rus, Виктор Константинович Старухин, Viktor Konstantinovich Starukhin, 1 May 1916 – 12 January 1957), nicknamed , was a Japanese baseball player. While playing in Japan, he became the first professio ...

, baseball player *

Taizō Sugimura is a Japanese politician and a member of the Diet of Japan, representing the Liberal Democratic Party until 2009. He ran in House of Councillors election in 2010 as a proportional candidate of the Sunrise Party of Japan. Sugimura was born i ...

, politician * Bikki Sunazawa, sculptor and painter *

Kentaro Suzuki is a former Japanese football player. Playing career Suzuki was born in Shibetsu on June 2, 1980. After graduating from high school, he joined J1 League club Bellmare Hiratsuka (later ''Shonan Bellmare'') in 1999. However he could hardly play in ...

, football player * Koyo Takahashi, basketball player *

Tomoka Takeuchi is a Japanese competitive snowboarder from Asahikawa, Hokkaido. She won the silver medal in the Women's Parallel Giant Slalom in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. At the 2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 ...

, snowboarder * Kōji Tamaki, lead vocalist of Anzen Chitai *

Buichi Terasawa is a Japanese manga artist. His most famous works include ''Goku Midnight Eye'' and '' Cobra''. Career Terasawa was born in Asahikawa, Hokkaido. In the early days of his career, while still unknown, his contributed comics to a magazine that ...

Masae Ueno is a Japanese judoka who competed in the Athens 2004 Olympics and the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Ueno was born in Asahikawa Hokkaidō. In 2004, she earned Japan's fifth Olympic Gold Medal in ten events, taking the 70 kg women's judo event. S ...

, judo wrestler * Yoshie Ueno, judo wrestler *

Miho Yabe is a Japanese model and J-pop idol singer. She was born in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan (raised in Eniwa, Hokkaido), and made her singing debut on January 10, 1996. She has a sister Mika who is also a model, under the stage name Mika Kawai. Her ...

, actress * Megumi Yabushita, mixed martial artist,

kickboxer Kickboxing is a combat sport focused on kicking and punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is practiced for self-defense, general ...

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

and

judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

* Shōgō Yasumura, comedian

References

External links

Official Website

Asahikawa Tourism Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asahikawa, Hokkaido Cities in Hokkaido