Sapporo

Before its establishment, the area occupied by Sapporo (known as the Ishikari Plain) was home to a number of indigenous Ainu settlements.[8] In 1866, at the end of the Edo period, construction began on a canal through the area, encouraging a number of early settlers to establish Sapporo village.[9] 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, 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, Secretary of Agriculture under President Ulysses S. Grant, 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 with streets at right-angles to form city blocks. The continuing expansion of the Japanese into Hokkaido continued, mainly due to migration from the main island of Honshu immediately to the south, 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 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), came to be the founding vice-president of the Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University) for only 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),[10] and a railroad between Sapporo and Temiya, Otaru 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.[10]

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 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.[10] 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.[11]

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  Sapporo city map in 1891, showing the city's grid plan
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  Kuroda Kiyotaka
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  The Hokkaidō Shrine at Maruyama Park

In 1907, the Tohoku Imperial University was established in Sendai Miyagi Prefecture, and Sapporo Agricultural College was controlled by the university. 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. Another railroad operated in Sapporo, the Jōzankei Railroad, which was ultimately abolished in 1969.

In 1922, the new city system was announced by the Tokyo government, and Sapporo-ku was officially changed to Sapporo City.[9] The Sapporo Municipal Bus System was started in 1930. In 1937, Sapporo was chosen as the site of the 1940 Winter Olympics, but due to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, this was cancelled the next year. Maruyama Town was integrated as a part of Chūō-ku in 1940, and the Okadama Airport was constructed in 1942. During World War II, the city was bombed by American naval aircraft in July 1945.[12]

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.[13] 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.[13] 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.[13]

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 1972 Winter Olympics were held, the first Winter Olympics held in Asia.[9] On April 1 of the same year, Sapporo was designated as one of the cities designated by government ordinance, and seven wards were established.[13] The last public performance by the opera singer, Maria Callas, was in Sapporo at the Hokkaido Koseinenkin Kaikan on 11 November 1974.[14] The Sapporo Municipal Subway was expanded when the Tōzai line started operation in 1976, and the Tōhō line was opened in 1988. 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, 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.[15]

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  Sapporo City, Taisho era, 1918
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  Odori Park in 1936
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  The Former Hokkaido Government Office Building
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  The Sapporo TV Tower was built in 1957.

The 34th G8 summit protest march in 2008

In 2001 the construction of the Sapporo Dome was completed, and in 2002 the Dome hosted three games during the 2002 FIFA World Cup: 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 team, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, in 2004, which won the 2006 Japan Series, and the victory parade was held on Ekimae-Dōri (a street in front of Sapporo Station) in February 2007.

The 34th G8 summit took place in Tōyako in 2008, and a number of people including anti-globalization activists marched in the heart of the city to protest. Police officers were gathered in Sapporo from all over Japan, and the news reported that four people were arrested in the demonstrations.[16]

The Hokkaidō Shinkansen line, which currently connects Honshu to Hakodate through the Seikan Tunnel, is planned to link to Sapporo by 2030.[17]

Sapporo currently has ten wards (区, ku).

	Name	Kanji	Population	Land area in km2	Pop. density per km2	Map of Sapporo
1	Atsubetsu-ku	厚別区	127,299	24.38	5,221	A map of Sapporo's Wards
2	Chūō-ku	中央区	237,761	46.42	5,122
3	Higashi-ku	東区	261,901	56.97	4,597
4	Kita-ku	北区	286,026	63.57	4,499
5	Kiyota-ku	清田区	113,556	59.87	1,897
6	Minami-ku	南区	136,774	657.48	208
7	Nishi-ku	西区	216,835	75.10	2,887
8	Shiroishi-ku	白石区	213,310	34.47	6,188
9	Teine-ku	手稲区	141,886	56.77	2,499
10	Toyohira-ku	豊平区	223,408	46.23	4,833

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  Sapporo City Skyline from Asahiyama Memorial Park (2020)
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  Central business district of Sapporo City (2020）
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  Downtown Susukino (2018）
• View of the city from above (2016)
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  A view of Sapporo city and Hokkaidō University (2009)

Sapporo has a humid continental climate (Köppen: 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 4.79 m (15 ft 9 in) per year.[20] Sapporo is one of few metropolises in the world with such heavy snowfall,[21] enabling it to hold events and festivals with snow statues. The heavy snowfall is due to the Siberian High 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 1,100 mm (43.3 in), and the mean annual temperature is 8.5 °C (47.3 °F).[22]

The highest temperature ever recorded in Sapporo was 36.2 °C (97.2 °F) on 7 August 1994.[23] The coldest temperature ever recorded was −28.5 °C (−19.3 °F) on 1 February 1929.[23]

See or edit raw graph data.

• 1934 – The International Contemporary Music Festival was held by Akira Ifukube, Fumio Hayasaka, Atsushi Miura, and Isamu Ifukube (30 September)
• 1936 – Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin visited Sapporo
• 1960 – The Sapporo Symphony Orchestra founded
• 1962 – John Cage and David Tudor visited Sapporo
• 1966 – Berliner Philharmoniker with Herbert von Karajan performed Brahms's Symphony No. 2 at Sapporo Shimin Kaikan (April)
• 1974 – Maria Callas 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
• 2018 – The Sapporo Community Plaza opened

• 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 Hongō Shin Memorial Museum of Sculpture hosts a collection of over 1,800 works by the artist Hongō Shin.[38]
• 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 Isamu Noguchi
• The Migishi Kotaro Museum of Art
• The Hongo Shin Memorial Museum of Sculpture
• The Miyanomori Art Museum
• The Sapporo Odori 500-m Underground Walkway Gallery
• Member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a Creative City of Media Arts since 2013
• Sapporo International Art Festival (2014/2017)

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

• The Idiot (1951 film) by Akira Kurosawa
• The Northern Museum of Visual Culture
• Theater Kino
• The Sapporo International Short Film Festival and Market

• Yakuza 5
• Persona 5 Strikers
• Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Pokémon Platinum and Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Jubilife City, the capital of the Sinnoh region, is based on Sapporo.

Sapporo Beer Museum

Susukino, the entertainment district of Sapporo

• 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 Edwin Dun Memorial Hall
• The Hokkaido University & 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 Station.[39]

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.

The Peace Pagoda, one of many such monuments across the world built by the Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji to promote and inspire world peace, has a stupa that was built in 1959, halfway up Mount Moiwa, to commemorate peace after World War II. 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 by the Nipponzan-Myohoji monk, Junsei Terasawa.

Odori Park (2018)

• The Odori Park
• The Nakajima Park
• The Maruyama Park is located next to the Hokkaido Shrine and houses the Maruyama Zoo.
• The Moerenuma Park
• The Nishioka Park is a location of rich nature which 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 Hokkaido for many types of wild birds.
• The Asahiyama Memorial Park offers great views of the city.
• The Hokkaido University Botanical Gardens and The Chizaki Rose Garden
• The Hitsujigaoka Observation Hill has a farm with sheep and attracts visitors with a statue of William S. Clark.

Dancers in the Yosakoi Sōran Festival

Sapporo Snow Festival

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.[40]

May: the Sapporo Lilac Festival. Lilac 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.[40]

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.[40]

September: the Sapporo Autumn Festival

December: Christmas market in Odori Park, similar to German Christmas markets.

From November through January, many citizens enjoy the Sapporo White Illuminations.

Soup curry

The city is home to Sapporo Brewery, white chocolate biscuits known as 'shiroi koibito' (白い恋人), and also as the birthplace of miso ramen.[41] 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.[41] From the year 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, similar to blueberries, is a specialty in Sapporo. Other specialty dishes of Sapporo include; soup curry, a soupy curry made with vegetables and chicken, sometimes other meats too, and jingisukan, a barbecued lamb dish, named after Genghis Khan. Sapporo Sweets, is a confectionery using many ingredients from Hokkaido where there's also the Sapporo Sweets Competition held annually.[42] Sapporo is also well known for fresh seafood including salmon, sea urchin and crab. 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.[43]

The Sapporo Dome in winter

The Sapporo Dome was constructed in 2001 and is currently host to the local professional football team, Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo.

ES CON Field Hokkaido (エスコンフィールド北海道, Esukon Fīrudo Hokkaidō), a baseball park in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, is home to Nippon Professional Baseball's Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and opened in March 2023. From 2004 to 2022, the Fighters called Sapporo Dome home.

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. 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 and the 2030 Winter Olympics, 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 Sapporo Dome, the report said.[44] The plans were presented to the Japanese Olympic Committee on 8 November 2016.[45][46] In 2002, Sapporo hosted three group matches of the FIFA World Cup 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 at the Sapporo Dome, Miyanomori ski jump, Okurayama ski jump, and the Shirahatayama cross-country course. It has been the host city to two Asian Winter Games and hosted the 2017 Asian Winter Games in Obihiro. Sapporo also hosted games during the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

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 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 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 and renamed the arena after their real estate brand.[47] 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. As one of the richest events of its kind in the world, it draws many of the world's best snowboarders.

• J.League – Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo (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

Sapporo Municipal Subway is the only rubber-tyred metro system in East Asia.

The Sapporo Streetcar is currently the only operational circular tram system in Asia (although a similar tram system in Kaohsiung, Taiwan is planned to begin operation later in 2023).

• Sapporo Municipal Subway
• Sapporo Streetcar
• Mount Moiwa Ropeway
• Teineyama Ropeway

Sapporo Station

• JR Hokkaido Stations in Sapporo
  • Hakodate Line: (Zenibako) – Hoshimi – Hoshioki – Inaho – Teine – Inazumi Kōen – Hassamu – Hassamu Chūō – Kotoni – Sōen – Sapporo – Naebo – Shiroishi – Atsubetsu – Shinrinkōen – (Ōasa)
  • Chitose Line: 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)

The Sapporo area is served by two airports: Okadama Airport, which offers regional flights within Hokkaido, and New Chitose Airport, a larger international airport located in the city of Chitose 30 miles (48 km) away connected by regular rapid trains taking around 40 minutes. The Sapporo-Tokyo route between New Chitose and Haneda is one of the busiest in the world.

An airport shuttle bus servicing all 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.

• Hokkaido University
• Hokkaido University of Education

See Japanese national university

• Sapporo Medical University
• Sapporo City University

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

Sapporo Odori High School

Sapporo Odori High School provides Japanese-language classes to foreign and Japanese returnee students, and the school has special admissions quotas for these groups.[48]

The city has two private international schools:

• Hokkaido International School
• Hokkaido Korean Primary, Middle and High School (North Korean school)