is a designated city in

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the

Toyohira River The is a river in Hokkaido, Japan. It is 72.5 km in length and has drainage area of 894.7 km². It is a tributary of the Ishikari River. It supplies water to Sapporo city, the capital of Hokkaidō built on the alluvial fan An all ...

, a tributary of the

Ishikari River The , at long, is the third longest in Japan and the longest in Hokkaidō. The river drains an area of , making it the second largest in Japan, with a total discharge of around per year. It originates from Mount Ishikari in the Daisetsuzan ...

. Sapporo is the capital of Hokkaido Prefecture and Ishikari Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2023, the city has a population of 1,959,750, making it the largest city in Hokkaido and the largest north of

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. It is the fifth-most populous city in Japan and is Hokkaido's cultural, economic, and political center. Originally a plain sparsely inhabited by the indigenous

Ainu people The Ainu are an Indigenous peoples, indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Ku ...

, there were a few trade posts of the Matsumae domain in the area during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. The city began as an administrative centre with the establishment of the Hokkaido Development Commission headquarters in 1869. Inspired by the ancient cities of

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

and

Heijō-kyō was the Capital of Japan during most of the Nara period, from 710 to 740 and again from 745 to 784. The imperial palace is a listed UNESCO World Heritage together with other places in the city of Nara (cf. Historic Monuments of Ancient ...

, it adopted a grid plan and developed around Odori Park. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, it replaced

Otaru is a Cities of Japan, city and Seaports of Japan, port in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces Ishikari Bay and the Sea of Japan, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical ...

as Hokkaido's commercial and business hub, and its population surpassed one million by 1970. After giving up the planned 1940 Sapporo Winter Olympics, Sapporo hosted the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

, the first Winter Olympics ever held in Asia, and the second Olympic games held in Asia after the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subseq ...

in Tokyo. Sapporo recently dropped its bid for the

2030 Winter Olympics The 2030 Winter Olympics (), officially known as the XXVI Olympic Winter Games 2030 () and branded as French Alps 2030 (), is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 1 to 17 February 2030 in the French Alps reg ...

. The

Sapporo Dome The , currently known as for sponsorship reasons, is a stadium located in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, and is primarily used for association football. It is the home field of the association football club Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, and was also h ...

hosted three matches during the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

and two matches during the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

. Additionally, Sapporo has hosted the

Asian Winter Games The Asian Winter Games (AWG) is an international multi-sport event held every four years for members of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) featuring winter events. The Japanese Olympic Committee first suggested creating a winter version of the ...

three times, in 1986,

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and the 1991 Winter Universiade. The annual Sapporo Snow Festival draws more than 2 million tourists. Other notable sites include the Sapporo Beer Museum and the Sapporo TV Tower located in Odori Park. It is home to

Hokkaido University , or , is a public research university in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Founded in 1918, it is the fifth-oldest government-authorised university in Japan and one of the former Imperial Universities. The university finds its roots in Sapporo A ...

, just north of

Sapporo Station is a major railway station in Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. It is served by Hakodate Main Line and other lines of Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido), and is also connected to the Subway Sapporo Station. Sapporo Station is the star ...

. The city is served by

Okadama Airport , commonly known as , is a dual-use airport located in , Higashi-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, north of the city center of Sapporo. Its scheduled airline service is limited to turboprop flights to other cities in Hokkaidō; larger aircraft use New Ch ...

and

New Chitose Airport is an international airport located south-southeast of Chitose, Hokkaidō, Chitose and Tomakomai, Hokkaidō, Japan, serving the Sapporo metropolitan area. By both traffic and land area, it is the largest airport in Hokkaidō. It is adjacent ...

in nearby Chitose.

Toponomy

Sapporo's name is taken from Ainuic ''sat poro pet'' (), which can be translated as "dry, great river", a reference to the Toyohira River.

History

Early history

Before its establishment, the area occupied by Sapporo (Ishikari Plain, around Ishikari, Hokkaido) was home to indigenous Ainu settlements. In 1866, at the end of the

, construction began on a canal through the area, encouraging a number of early settlers to establish Sapporo village. In 1868, the officially recognized year celebrated as the "birth" of Sapporo, the new Meiji government concluded that the existing administrative center of Hokkaido, which at the time was the port of

Hakodate is a Cities of Japan, city and seaports of Japan, port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of January 31, 2024, the city had an estimated population of 239,813 with 138,807 househol ...

, was in an unsuitable location for defense and further development of the island. As a result, it was determined that a new capital on the Ishikari Plain should be established. The plain itself provided an unusually large expanse of flat, well-drained land which is relatively uncommon in the otherwise mountainous geography of Hokkaido. During 1870–1871, Kuroda Kiyotaka, vice-chairman of the Hokkaido Development Commission (Kaitaku-shi), approached the American government for assistance in developing the land. As a result,

Horace Capron Horace Capron (August 31, 1804 – February 22, 1885) was an American businessman and agriculturalist, a founder of Laurel, Maryland, a Union (American Civil War), Union officer in the American Civil War, the United States secretary of agri ...

Secretary of Agriculture The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments The department includes several organiz ...

under President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

, became an '' oyatoi gaikokujin'' and was appointed as a special advisor to the commission. Construction began around Odori Park, which still remains as a green ribbon of recreational land bisecting the central area of the city. The city closely followed a

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogon ...

with streets at right-angles to form city blocks. The continuing expansion of the Japanese into around Hokkaido continued, and the prosperity of Hokkaido and particularly its capital grew to the point that the Development Commission was deemed unnecessary and was abolished in 1882. In 1871, the Hokkaidō Shrine was built in its current location as the Sapporo Shrine.

Edwin Dun Edwin Dun (June 19, 1848 – May 15, 1931) was a rancher from Ohio who was employed as an '' o-yatoi gaikokujin'' in Hokkaidō by the Hokkaidō Development Commission (''Kaitakushi'') and advised the Japanese government on modernizing agric ...

came to Sapporo to establish sheep and cattle ranches in 1876. He also demonstrated pig raising and the making of butter, cheese, ham and sausage. He was married twice, to Japanese women. He once went back to the US in 1883 but returned to Japan as a secretary of government. William S. Clark, who was the president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

), came to be the founding vice-president of the Sapporo Agricultural College (now

) for eight months from 1876 to 1877. He taught academic subjects in science and lectured on the Bible as an "ethics" course, introducing Christian principles to the first entering class of the college. In 1880, the entire area of Sapporo was renamed as "Sapporo-ku" (Sapporo Ward), and a railroad between Sapporo and Temiya,

was laid. That year the Hōheikan, a hotel and reception facility for visiting officials and dignitaries, was built adjacent to the Odori Park. It was later moved to Nakajima Park where it remains today. Two years later, with the abolition of the Kaitaku-shi, Hokkaidō was divided into three prefectures: Hakodate, Sapporo, and Nemuro. The name of the urban district in Sapporo remained Sapporo-ku, while the rest of the area in Sapporo-ku was changed to Sapporo-gun. The office building of Sapporo-ku was also located in the urban district. Sapporo, Hakodate, and Nemuro Prefectures were abolished in 1886, and Hokkaidō government office building, an American- neo-baroque-style structure with red bricks, constructed in 1888. The last squad of the Tondenhei, the soldiers pioneering Hokkaido, settled in the place where the area of Tonden in

Kita-ku, Sapporo is a ward of Sapporo composed of residential neighborhoods mostly arranged in grid patterns, and each built surrounding a train station, broken up by areas of farmland and some light-industrial areas. With 260,000 people, it is the most populat ...

is currently located. Sapporo-ku administered surrounding Sapporo-gun until 1899, when the new district system was announced. After that year, Sapporo-ku was away from the control of Sapporo-gun. The "ku" (district) enforced from 1899 was an autonomy which was a little bigger than towns, and smaller than cities. In Hokkaido at that time, Hakodate-ku and Otaru-ku also existed.

20th century

In 1907, Tohoku Imperial University was established in

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

Miyagi Prefecture, and Sapporo Agricultural College became part of the university as its agriculture faculty. Parts of neighbouring villages including Sapporo Village, Naebo Village, Kami Shiroishi Village, and districts where the Tonden-hei had settled, were integrated into Sapporo-ku in 1910. The Sapporo Streetcar was opened in 1918, and Hokkaido Imperial University was established in Sapporo-ku, as the fifth Imperial University in Japan, by separating the agriculture faculty of Tohoku Imperial University again. Another railroad operated in Sapporo, the Jōzankei Line, which was ultimately abolished in 1969. In 1922, the new city system was announced by the national government in Tokyo, and Sapporo-ku was officially renamed Sapporo City. The Sapporo Municipal Bus System was started in 1930. In 1937, Sapporo was chosen as the site of the

1940 Winter Olympics The 1940 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and as Sapporo 1940 (札幌1940), was a planned international multi-sport event scheduled to have been held from 3 to 12 February 1940 in Sapporo, Empire of Japan. They were ultimately cancelled ...

, but due to the outbreak of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

, this was cancelled the next year. Maruyama Town was integrated as a part of Chūō-ku in 1940, and the

was constructed in 1942. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the city was bombed by American naval aircraft in July 1945. Odori Park Sapporo Snow Festival 2007

Sapporo view of city from Sapporo TV tower - 2016 08 14

The first Sapporo Snow Festival was held in 1950. In the same year, adjacent Shiroishi Village was integrated into Sapporo City, rendered as a part of Shiroishi-ku, and Atsubetsu-ku. In 1955, Kotoni Town, the entire Sapporo Village, and Shinoro Village were merged into Sapporo, becoming a part of the current Chūō-ku, Kita-ku, Higashi-ku, Nishi-ku, and Teine-ku. The expansion of Sapporo continued, with the merger of Toyohira Town in 1961, and Teine Town in 1967, each becoming a part of Toyohira-ku, Kiyota-ku, and Teine-ku. The ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Sapporo and Hokkaido was held in 1968. The Sapporo Municipal Subway system was inaugurated in 1971, which made Sapporo the fourth city in Japan to have a subway system. From February 3 to 13, 1972, the

were held, the first Winter Olympics held in Asia. On April 1 of the same year, Sapporo was designated as one of the cities designated by government ordinance, and seven wards were established. The last public performance by the opera singer,

Maria Callas Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sophia Kalogeropoulos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised ...

, was in Sapporo at the Hokkaido Koseinenkin Kaikan on 11 November 1974. The Sapporo Municipal Subway was expanded when the Tōzai line started operation in 1976, and the Tōhō line was opened in 1988, as well as the

in the same year. In 1989, Atsubetsu-ku and Teine-ku were separated from Shiroishi-ku and Nishi-ku. Annual events in Sapporo were started, such as the Pacific Music Festival in 1990, and Yosakoi Sōran Festival in 1992. A professional football club,

Consadole Sapporo is a Japanese professional football club based in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. They will play in the 2025 J2 League, the second tier league of Japanese football, after relegation from the J1 League at conclusion of th ...

, was established in 1996. In 1997, Kiyota-ku was separated from Toyohira-ku. In the same year, Hokkaidō Takushoku Bank, a Hokkaido-based bank with headquarters in Odori, went bankrupt.

21st century

In 2001 the construction of the

was completed, and in 2002 the Dome hosted three matches during the

: Germany vs Saudi Arabia, Argentina vs England and Italy vs Ecuador, all of which were in the first round. Fumio Ueda, was elected as Sapporo mayor for the first time in 2003. Sapporo became the home to a

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

team,

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters The are a Japanese professional Baseball in Japan, baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō, in the Sapporo metropolitan area. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the major ...

, in 2004, which won the

2006 Japan Series The Japan Series, the 57th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's championship series, began on October 21 and ended on October 26, and matched the Central League champion Chunichi Dragons against the Pacific League champion, Hokkaido Nipp ...

, and the victory parade was held on Ekimae-Dōri (a street in front of

) in February 2007. The Hokkaidō Shinkansen line, which currently connects

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

through the Seikan Tunnel, is planned to link to Sapporo by 2030.

Geography

Indicator map for Ishikari and Sorachi Subprefecture in Hokkaido Japan

Sapporo is a city located in the southwest part of Ishikari Plain and the

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

of the

, a tributary stream of the

. It is part of Ishikari Subprefecture. Roadways in the urban district are laid to make a grid plan. The western and southern parts of Sapporo are occupied by a number of mountains including Mount Teine, Maruyama, and Mount Moiwa, as well as many rivers including the Ishikari River, Toyohira River, and Sōsei River. Sapporo has an elevation of . Sapporo has many parks, including Odori Park, which is located in the heart of the city and hosts a number of annual events and festivals throughout the year. Moerenuma Park is also one of the largest parks in Sapporo, and was constructed under the plan of

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist, furniture designer and Landscape architecture, landscape architect whose career spanned six decades from the 1920s. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Grah ...

, a Japanese-American artist and landscape architect. Neighbouring cities are Ishikari,

Ebetsu is a Cities of Japan, city in Ishikari Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. History Ebetsu was settled originally by Japanese people in 1871, who came from the Miyagi Prefecture on Honshu. In 1878, tondenhei began moving into the area. When the M ...

, Kitahiroshima, Eniwa, Chitose,

, Date, and adjoining towns are Tōbetsu, Kimobetsu, Kyōgoku.

Climate

Sapporo has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Dfa''), with a wide range of temperature between the summer and winter. Summers are generally warm and humid, but not oppressively hot, and winters are cold and very snowy, with an average snowfall of per year. Sapporo is one of few metropolises in the world with such heavy snowfall, enabling it to hold events and festivals with snow statues. The heavy snowfall is due to the

Siberian High The Siberian High (also Siberian Anticyclone; (''Aziatsky antitsiklon''); zh, 西伯利亞高壓; Pinyin ''Xībólìyǎ gāoyā''; Kazakh Азия антициклоны (''Aziya antitsiklonı'')) is a massive collection of cold dry air that a ...

developing over the Eurasian land mass and the Aleutian Low developing over the northern Pacific Ocean, resulting in a flow of cold air southeastward across Tsushima Current and to western Hokkaido. The city's annual average precipitation is around , and the mean annual temperature is . The highest temperature ever recorded in Sapporo was on August 23, 2023. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 1 February 1929.

Administration

Wards

Sapporo currently has ten . Sapporo-City-Hall-01

Demographics

The first census of the population of Sapporo was taken in 1873, when 753 families with a total of 1,785 people were recorded in the town. The city has an estimated population of 1,959,750 as of July 31, 2023 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), 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 geog ...

of . The total area is .

Surrounding municipalities

; Ishikari Subprefecture *

* Kitahiroshima * Ishikari * Eniwa * Chitose * Ishikari District： Tōbetsu ;

Shiribeshi Subprefecture is a Subprefectures of Hokkaido, subprefecture of Hokkaido, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. The subprefecture's capital is Kutchan, Hokkaido, Kutchan. As of July 31, 2004, the estimated population was 256,184 and the area was 4,305.65 km2. ...

* Abuta District： Kimobetsu * Abuta District： Kyōgoku * Yoichi District： Akaigawa ; Iburi Subprefecture * Date

Economy

Sapporo Metropolitan Employment Area 2015

The tertiary sector dominates Sapporo's industry. Major industries include information technology, retail, and tourism, as Sapporo is a destination for winter sports and events and summer activities due to its comparatively cool climate. The city is also the manufacturing centre of Hokkaido, manufacturing various goods such as food and related products, fabricated metal products, steel, machinery, beverages, and pulp and paper. The

Sapporo Breweries is a Japanese beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo, the oldest brand of beer in Japan, was first brewed in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in 1876 by Seibei Nakagawa. The world headquarters of Sapporo Breweries is in Ebisu, Shibuya, Tokyo. The co ...

, founded in 1876, is a major company and employer in the city.

Hokkaido International Airlines , previously known as , is a Japanese regional airline headquartered in Sapporo, Japan. It operates scheduled service between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido in cooperation with All Nippon Airways, from its hubs at New Chitose Airport in Sa ...

(Air Do) is headquartered in Chūō-ku. In April 2004, Air Nippon Network was headquartered in Higashi-ku. Other companies headquartered in Sapporo include

Crypton Future Media , or simply Crypton, is a Japanese media company based in Sapporo, Japan. It develops, imports, and sells products for music, such as sound generator software, sampling CDs and DVDs, and sound effect, FX and background music, BGM libraries. The ...

, DB-Soft, Hokkaido Air System, and Royce'.

Transport

Sapporo has one streetcar line, three

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to by its official abbreviation: . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a smart c ...

lines, three subway lines and

JR Bus JR Bus collectively refers to the bus operations of Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies in Japan. JR Bus is operated by six regional companies, with JR East and JR West operating two each while the others operate one each. JR Bus compani ...

, Chuo Bus and other bus lines. Sapporo Subway trains have rubber-tired wheels.

Airways

Airport

The Sapporo area is served by two airports:

, which offers regional flights within Hokkaido and Tohoku, and

, a larger international airport located in the city of Chitose away, connected by regular rapid trains taking around 40 minutes. The Sapporo-Tokyo route between New Chitose and Haneda is the second busiest in the world only after Gimpo to Jeju route.

Railways

Stations in Sapporo

High-speed rail

;

* Hokkaido Shinkansen（2032）

Conventional lines

;

* Hakodate Line: (Zenibako) – Hoshimi – Hoshioki – Inaho – Teine – Inazumi Kōen – Hassamu – Hassamu Chūō – Kotoni – Sōen – Sapporo – Naebo – Shiroishi – Atsubetsu – Shinrinkōen – (Ōasa) *

Chitose Line The is a railway line in Hokkaido operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido), connecting Numanohata Station, Numanohata, Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Tomakomai and Shiroishi Station (JR Hokkaido), Shiroishi Station in Shiroishi-ku, Sapporo, link ...

: Heiwa – Shin Sapporo – Kami Nopporo – (Kita-Hiroshima) * Sasshō Line (Gakuentoshi Line): Sōen – Hachiken – Shinkawa – Shinkotoni – Taihei – Yurigahara – Shinoro – Takuhoku – Ainosato Kyōikudai – Ainosato Kōen – (Ishikari Futomi)

Subways

* Sapporo Municipal Subway provides urban transit service.

Tramways

* Sapporo Streetcar

Rapid transit

* Mount Moiwa Ropeway * Teineyama Ropeway

Busways

An airport shuttle bus servicing hotels in Sapporo operates every day of the year. SkyExpress was founded in 2005 and also provides transport to and from various ski resorts throughout Hokkaido, including Niseko.

Sightseeing

Points of interest

* The former Hokkaidō government office building * The Sapporo Clock Tower * The Hokkaidō Shrine * Nishino Shrine * Hokkaido Museum * Historical Village of Hokkaido * Sapporo Buried Cultural Property Center * The Sapporo City Archive Museum (Former Sapporo Court of Appeal) * The

Memorial Hall * The

& Hokkaido University Museum * The Sapporo Beer Museum & Sapporo Factory * The Sapporo TV Tower * The Sapporo Convention Center * The Sapporo Salmon Museum in Makomanai Park * The Sunpiazza Aquarium Sapporo JR Tower adjacent to

. Sapporo Ramen Yokocho and Norubesa (a building with a Ferris wheel) are in Susukino district. The district also has the Tanuki Kōji Shopping Arcade, the oldest shopping mall in the city. The district of Jōzankei in Minami-ku has many resort hotels with steam baths and

onsen In Japan, are hot springs and the bathing facilities and Ryokan (inn), traditional inns around them. There are approximately 25,000 hot spring sources throughout Japan, and approximately 3,000 ''onsen'' establishments use naturally hot water ...

. The

Peace Pagoda A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa: a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most, though not all, peace pagodas built since World War II ...

, one of many such monuments across the world built by the Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji to promote and inspire world peace, has a

stupa In Buddhism, a stupa (, ) is a domed hemispherical structure containing several types of sacred relics, including images, statues, metals, and '' śarīra''—the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns. It is used as a place of pilgrimage and m ...

that was built in 1959, halfway up Mount Moiwa, to commemorate peace after

. It contains some of the ashes of the Buddha that were presented to the Emperor of Japan by Prime Minister Nehru in 1954. Another portion was presented to

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

by the Nipponzan-Myohoji monk, Junsei Terasawa.

Parks/gardens

* Asahiyama Memorial Park offers great views of the city * Hitsujigaoka Observation Hill has a farm with sheep and attracts visitors with a statue of William S. Clark * Hokkaido University Botanical Gardens and The Chizaki Rose Garden *

Maruyama Park is a park in Kyoto, Japan. It is noted as the main center for cherry blossom viewing in Kyoto, and can get extremely crowded at that time of year (April). The park's star attraction is a weeping cherry tree (''shidarezakura'') which becomes ...

is located next to the Hokkaido Shrine and houses the Maruyama Zoo * Moerenuma Park * Nakajima Park * Nishioka Park is a location of rich nature that centers around a pond and consists of marshland and the forest of the Tsukisamu River and its upper river basin. This park also serves as one of the main habitats in

for many types of wild birds. * Odori Park

Culture

Music

* 1934 – The International Contemporary Music Festival was held by

Akira Ifukube was a Japanese composer. He is best known for composing several entries in the Godzilla (franchise), ''Godzilla'' franchise as well as developing the Godzilla, titular monster's roar. Biography Early years in Hokkaido Akira Ifukube was born o ...

Fumio Hayasaka was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores. Early life Hayasaka was born in the city of Sendai on the main Japanese island of Honshū. In 1918, Hayasaka and his family moved to Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaidō. In ...

, Atsushi Miura, and Isamu Ifukube (30 September) * 1936 – Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin visited Sapporo * 1960 – The Sapporo Symphony Orchestra founded * 1962 –

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

and

David Tudor David Eugene Tudor (January 20, 1926 – August 13, 1996) was an American pianist and composer of experimental music. Life and career Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano with Irma Wolpe and composition with Stefa ...

visited Sapporo * 1966 – Berliner Philharmoniker with Herbert von Karajan performed Brahms's Symphony No. 2 at Sapporo Shimin Kaikan (April) * 1974 –

last public performance at the Hokkaido Koseinenkin Kaikan (11 November) * 1986 – The Sapporo Art Park include the Outdoor Stage and Art Hall (27 July) * 1990 – The Pacific Music Festival (PMF) started * 1997 – The Sapporo Concert Hall Kitara opened * 2007 - "01_ballade" by Eiji Hirasawa (from CFM) is released as a demo, later renamed to "Hoshi no Kakera" as the full song for

Hatsune Miku , officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media. Its official mascot is depicted as a sixteen-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's personification has been marketed as a virt ...

's debut * 2018 – The Sapporo Community Plaza opened

Art

* The Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art represents Hokkaido artists like Eien Iwahashi, Kinjiro Kida, Nissho Kanda, Tamako Kataoka, and especially glass objects of

École de Paris The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...

* The Hongō Shin Memorial Museum of Sculpture hosts a collection of over 1,800 works by the artist Hongō Shin. * The Sapporo Art Park contains Art museum featuring outdoor installations & a sculpture garden, and the old house of Takeo Arishima. * The Moerenuma Park including the Glass Pyramid, designed by

* The Migishi Kotaro Museum of Art * The Miyanomori Art Museum * The Sapporo Odori 500-m Underground Walkway Gallery * Member of UNESCO

Creative Cities Network The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is a flagship city programme of UNESCO launched in 2004 to promote cooperation among cities which have recognized culture and creativity as strategic drivers of sustainable urban development Urban means ...

as a Creative City of Media Arts since 2013 * Sapporo International Art Festival (2014/2017/2024)

Literature

* The Hokkaido Museum of Literature * Takeo Arishima Residence in Sapporo Art Park * Junichi Watanabe Museum of Literature

Film

* The Idiot (1951 film) by

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

* The Northern Museum of Visual Culture * Theater Kino * The Sapporo International Short Film Festival and Market

Video games

* '' Yakuza 5'' * '' Persona 5 Strikers'' * ''

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and are role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo DS in 2006. They are the first installments in the fourth generation of the Pokémon (video game series), ''Pokém ...

'', '' Pokémon Platinum'' and '' Pokémon Legends: Arceus'', Jubilife City, the capital of the Sinnoh region, is based on Sapporo.

Events/festivals

February: the Sapporo Snow Festival The main site is at Odori Park, and other sites include Susukino (known as the Susukino Ice Festival) and Sapporo Satoland. Many of the snow and ice statues are built by members of the

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force The , , 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 branches. New military guidelines, announced in December 2010, direct ...

.Tourism Statistics of Sapporo
, 2006, p.29 (pdf file) May: the Sapporo Lilac Festival.

Lilac ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly ...

was brought to Sapporo in 1889 by an American educator, Sarah Clara Smith. At the festival, people enjoy the flowers, wine and live music. June: the Yosakoi Soran Festival. The sites of the festival are centered on Odori Park and the street leading to Susukino, and there are other festival sites. In the festival, many dance teams dance to music composed based on a Japanese traditional song, " Sōran Bushi". Members of the dancing teams wear special costumes and compete on the roads or stages constructed on the festival sites. In 2006, 350 teams were featured with around 45,000 dancers, and over 1,860,000 people visited the festival. The Sapporo Summer Festival. People enjoy drinking at the beer garden in Odori Park and on the streets of Susukino. This festival consists of a number of fairs such as Tanuki Festival and Susukino Festival. September: the Sapporo Autumn Festival December:

Christmas market A Christmas market is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent. These markets originated in Germany, but are now held in many countries. Some in the U.S. have Phono-semantic matching, adapted ...

in Odori Park, similar to German Christmas markets. From November through January, many citizens enjoy the Sapporo White Illuminations.

Cuisine

The city is home to

Sapporo Brewery is a Japanese brewery, beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo, the oldest brand of beer in Japan, was first brewed in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in 1876 by Seibei Nakagawa. The world headquarters of Sapporo Breweries is in Ebisu, Shibuya, Ebisu, ...

, white chocolate biscuits known as 'shiroi koibito' (白い恋人), and also as the birthplace of

miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji (the fungus ''Aspergillus oryzae''), and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. It is used for sauces and spreads; p ...

ramen. Kouraku Ramen Meitengai, in the Susukino district, is an alley lined with many miso ramen restaurants, since 1951. After its demolition, due to plans for the Sapporo Olympics, the Ganso Sapporo Ramen Yokocho was established in its place. It attracts many tourists throughout the year. From 1966, a food company named, Sanyo Foods, began to sell instant ramen under the brand name, " Sapporo Ichiban". Haskap, a local variety of edible

honeysuckle Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or Vine#Twining vines, twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae. The genus includes 158 species native to northern latitudes in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. Widely kno ...

, similar to

blueberries Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' with the genus ''Vaccinium''. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) ...

, is a specialty in Sapporo. Other specialty dishes of Sapporo include; soup curry, a soupy

curry Curry is a dish with a sauce or gravy seasoned with spices, mainly derived from the interchange of Indian cuisine with European taste in food, starting with the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and British, and then thoroughly internatio ...

made with vegetables and chicken, sometimes other meats too, and jingisukan, a

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

d lamb dish, named after

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

. Sapporo Sweets, is a confectionery using many ingredients from Hokkaido where there's also the Sapporo Sweets Competition held annually. Sapporo is also well known for fresh seafood including

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

sea urchin Sea urchins or urchins () are echinoderms in the class (biology), class Echinoidea. About 950 species live on the seabed, inhabiting all oceans and depth zones from the intertidal zone to deep seas of . They typically have a globular body cove ...

and

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

. Crab in particular is famed. Many types of crab are harvested and served seasonally in Sapporo like the horsehair crab, snow crab, king crab, and Hanasaki crab, with numerous dishes revolving around them.

Sports

The

was constructed in 2001 and is currently host to the local professional football team,

Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo is a Japanese professional football club based in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. They will play in the 2025 J2 League, the second tier league of Japanese football, after relegation from the J1 League at conclusion of the 2024 season. Th ...

. ES CON Field Hokkaido (エスコンフィールド北海道, ''Esukon Fīrudo Hokkaidō''), a

baseball park A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into two field sections called the infield and the outfield. The infield is an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined in part ba ...

in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, is home to

and opened in March 2023. From 2004 to 2022, the Fighters called Sapporo Dome home.

Winter sports

Sapporo was selected as host to the 5th Winter Olympics, scheduled for February 3 to 12, 1940; however Japan had to cancel the event, consequently handing the decision back to the IOC, after the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. In 1972, Sapporo hosted the 11th

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

. Some structures built for Olympic events remain in use today, including the ski jumps at Miyanomori and Okurayama. After considering a bid for the

2026 Winter Olympics The 2026 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Milano Cortina 2026, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 at sites across Lombardy and North ...

and the

, Olympic representatives in Sapporo have said that the city is considering a bid for the 2034 Winter Olympics. The city predicted it may cost as much as 456.5 billion yen ($4.3 billion) to host the games and is planning to have 90 percent of the facilities within half an hour of the Olympic village, according to a report published 12 May 2016. The Alpen course would be in Niseko, the world's second-snowiest resort, while the village would be next to the

, the report said. The plans were presented to the

Japanese Olympic Committee The is the National Olympic Committee in Japan for the Olympic Games movement, based in Tokyo, Japan. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams and raises funds to send Japanese competitors to Olympic events organised by the Internati ...

on 8 November 2016. In 2002, Sapporo hosted three group matches of the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

at the Sapporo Dome. In 2006, Sapporo hosted some games of the 2006 Basketball World Championship and also for the 2006 Women's Volleyball World Championship. In 2007, Sapporo hosted the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is a biennial Nordic skiing event organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). The World Championships was started in 1925 for men and opened for women's participation in 1954. World Championship eve ...

at the Sapporo Dome, Miyanomori ski jump, Okurayama ski jump, and the Shirahatayama cross-country course. It has been the host city to two

and hosted the

2017 Asian Winter Games The 2017 Asian Winter Games (), also known as Sapporo 2017 (), were a continental winter multi sport events and the 8th edition of the Asian Winter Games. They were held from February 19 to 26 2017 in Sapporo and Obihiro in Hokkaido, Japan. The ...

in Obihiro. Sapporo also hosted matches during the

. Skiing remains a major sport in Sapporo with almost all children skiing as a part of the school curriculum. Okurayama Elementary School is unusual in having its own ski hill and ski jumping hill on the school grounds. Within the city are commercial ski hills including Moiwayama, Bankeiyama, KobaWorld,

Sapporo Teine Sapporo Teine (サッポロテイネ) is a recreational center in Teine-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. It comprises many facilities, such as the ski resort (with other facilities, besides ski), the Teineyama Ropeway, and the ''Sapporo Teine Golf Cl ...

and Fu's. Many sports stadiums and domes are located in Sapporo, and some of them have been designated as venues of sports competitions. The Sapporo Community Dome, also known by its nickname "Tsu-Dome", has hosted the Golden Market, a huge

flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously owned (secondhand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...

event which is usually held twice a year, along with some sports events. The Makomanai Ice Arena, in Makomanai Park, was one of the venues of the Sapporo Olympics in 1972. It was renamed the Makomanai Sekisuiheim Ice Arena in 2007, when Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., acquired

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

and renamed the arena after their real estate brand. Other large sports venues include the Makomanai Open Stadium, Tsukisamu Dome, Maruyama Baseball Stadium, and the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center, which hosts the professional basketball team, Levanga Hokkaido. Toyota Big Air was a major international snowboarding event held annually in Sapporo Dome.

Professional sport teams

* J.League –

(J1 in 1998, 2001–2002, 2008, 2012, 2017–present; J2 in 1999–2000, 2003–2007, 2009–2011, 2013–2016). * NPB – Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in

Pacific League The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the a ...

Education

Universities

;National *

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 ...

''See

Japanese national university As of 2013, there were 86 , 90 public universities and 606 private universities in Japan. National universities tend to be held in higher regard in higher education in Japan than private or public universities. As of the 2019 fiscal year, the num ...

'' ;Public * Sapporo City University * Sapporo Medical University ;Private *

Fuji Women's University is a private university in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. History The predecessor of the school was founded in 1925, and it was chartered as a university in 1961. The university was founded by three Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George af ...

* Health Sciences University of Hokkaido * Hokkai School of Commerce * Hokkai Gakuen University * Hokkaido Bunkyo University * Hokkaido College of Pharmacy * Hokkaido Institute of Technology * Hokkaido Musashi Women's Junior College * Hokkaido University of Science * Hokkaido Tokai University * Hokusei Gakuen University * Japan Health Care College * Koen Gakuen Women's Junior College * Sapporo International University * Sapporo Ōtani University * Sapporo University * Sapporo University of Health Sciences *

Tenshi College is a private university in Higashi-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan an ...

Primary and secondary schools

There are 198 municipal elementary schools, and 98 municipal junior high schools in Sapporo. Sapporo Odori High School provides Japanese-language classes to foreign and Japanese returnee students, and the school has special admissions quotas for these groups. The city has two private international schools: * Hokkaido International School * Hokkaido Korean Primary, Middle and High School ( North Korean school)

Twin towns and sister cities

Sister cities

International

Sapporo has twinning relationships with several cities worldwide.Sister Cities , International Community Bureau
Sapporo also cooperates with:

Domestic

Notes

References

External links

Official Website

Sapporo Travel

Unesco Media City Sapporo
{{Authority control Cities in Hokkaido Populated places established in 1868 1868 establishments in Japan Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan