The Latest Breaking News from Hokkaido

Work to dry Pacific cod in cold outdoor weather is fully underway in Wakkanai, Hokkaido. A local specialty called bodara is made by drying cod both indoors and outdoors, exposing it to cold winds and sunlight from autumn to spring until there is no moisture left inside. The fish shrinks…

An ice-breaking pleasure boat opens up a route through drifting slabs of ice about 4 kilometers off the coast of Monbetsu, Hokkaido, on Saturday. Hokkaido has been hit by records snowfalls this winter, but on the day, the temperature climbed steadily thanks to warm winds from the south. Passengers on…

Japanese yellowtail fishing grounds have undergone a dramatic shift in recent years. Hokkaido, which previously registered next to no catches, registered the nation's largest annual yellowtail haul in 2020, while Toyama and Niigata prefectures, traditionally known for their winter yellowtail, continue to register poor catches.

WAKKANAI, Hokkaido -- Loco Solare, Japan's national women's curling team at the Beijing Winter Olympics, frequently visited Hokkaido's northernmost city of Wakkanai for training camps and curling events.

Farmers dig cabbages out from the snow in Wassamu, Hokkaido, to prepare shipments of the town's specialty food. The cabbages were harvested last autumn and laid out in a field to be buried under the snow. After fresh powder covers the vegetables and the outside temperature falls below freezing, the…

Illuminated ice sculptures create a fantastical atmosphere in extremely cold weather at the Ice Fall Festival in Kamikawa, Hokkaido. Visitors have their temperature checked at the entrance to the venue, which contains 30 sculptures of various sizes, each reminiscent of a frozen waterfall. "I came to the nearby Sounkyo district…

HOKUTO, Hokkaido -- Luxury sleeper train, the Hokutosei, is set to welcome customers again -- this time as a guesthouse. The popular train was decommissioned in 2015, but will get a new lease on life when it opens late April in Hokuto, Hokkaido.

The quasi-emergency measures to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus will be applied to 18 more prefectures, including Hokkaido, Osaka, and Fukuoka, the government decided Tuesday.

Tokyo and 12 other prefectures are now under quasi-emergency priority measures, effective from Friday, to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Soon, Osaka and Hokkaido will be among the eight other prefectures expected to join them.

Pregnant farm horses run in a snow-covered field at the National Livestock Breeding Center's Tokachi Station in Otofuke, in eastern Hokkaido, on Monday. Some of the horses weigh as much as 1 ton. Runs are conducted to have the animals exercise in the winter. The pregnant horses, among some 160…

Red crown cranes, a nationally protected species, walk and flutter their wings in the Setsuri River in Hokkaido's Tsurui village, which recorded a temperature of minus 18.6 C on Thursday. The difference in the air and water temperatures creates a dreamlike mist over the river. The cranes nest along the…