Hokkaido holds 19 of the 20 entries in the Japan Meteorological Agency’s all-time national ranking for the lowest temperature, and the record at the head of it is -41.0C at Asahikawa on 25 January 1902. The same agency’s all-time ranking for the deepest snow tells a different story: only 3 of its 20 entries are in Hokkaido, and the deepest of them all was measured in Shiga Prefecture. Cold and deep snow are separate questions here, and the published records answer them differently.
Hokkaido covers 83,422 square kilometres, about 22.1 per cent of Japan’s land
The prefectural government’s data book gives the area as 83,422 square kilometres as at 1 January 2025 and puts that at about 22.1 per cent of the national land area. It adds two comparisons of its own: 37.9 times the area of Tokyo, and about the area of Austria. It also states that this is the largest area of any prefecture.
The same page sets out how the island is made up. Japan is described as five main islands plus 14,125 islands, and Hokkaido as the main island of Hokkaido plus 1,472 islands. The northern and southern limits are given as 45 degrees 33 minutes north at Cape Kamoiwakka on Etorofu and 41 degrees 21 minutes north at the southern tip of Kojima off Matsumae. The highest point is Asahidake at 2,291 m, at the centre of the Daisetsuzan range, and the page notes that Hokkaido holds more than 80 per cent of the national area of wetland, along with 1,133 class-one rivers and 467 class-two rivers.
Administratively the island is one prefecture divided into 14 subprefectural bureaus, which the government lists as 9 general subprefectural bureaus and 5 subprefectural bureaus, and 179 municipalities. Counting the names on the list confirms the 14: Sorachi, Ishikari, Shiribeshi, Iburi, Hidaka, Oshima, Hiyama, Kamikawa, Rumoi, Soya, Okhotsk, Tokachi, Kushiro and Nemuro. Nine of those names are titled general subprefectural bureau on the page and five are not, which is where the 9 and the 5 come from, and the figure of 179 is the page’s own title. That is one prefecture covering a fifth of the country, so a plan built around two or three days is a plan for a part of it rather than the whole.
The national record low is -41.0C at Asahikawa, and 19 of the 20 ranked places are in Hokkaido
The agency builds its all-time national rankings from each site’s own record value and publishes the top 20. In the ranking for the lowest temperature, the first three entries are Asahikawa at -41.0C on 25 January 1902, Obihiro at -38.2C on 26 January 1902 and Edanbetsu at -38.1C on 17 February 1978. The fourth is the summit of Mount Fuji, listed under Shizuoka Prefecture, at -38.0C on 27 February 1981, and it is the only entry in the 20 that is not in Hokkaido. That count is mine, taken from the published rows.
The dates cluster. Twelve of the 20 entries fall in two cold spells, 7 of them on 17 February 1978 and 5 of them on 24 and 25 January 1985, and the two oldest, Asahikawa and Obihiro, were set on consecutive days in January 1902. The asterisk the agency prints next to Asahikawa and Obihiro marks a meteorological observatory rather than an AMeDAS site; the agency explains in its notes that AMeDAS statistics begin in 1976 while observatory records begin at dates that vary by site, so the older entries can only come from observatory stations.
A separate ranking, for the lowest daily maximum temperature, places Mount Fuji first at -32.0C in January 1936 and Asahikawa second at -22.5C on 12 January 1909.
Sapporo’s normal January mean is -3.2C and Asahikawa’s is -7.0C
Records are single days. The normals below, from the 1991-2020 statistical period with 30 years of data behind each column, are what an ordinary year looks like at the two sites. Sapporo’s coldest month is January at a mean of -3.2C with a mean daily minimum of -6.4C; Asahikawa’s January mean is -7.0C with a mean daily minimum of -11.7C, and its February mean daily minimum is lower still at -11.8C. August is the warmest month at both: 22.3C at Sapporo and 21.2C at Asahikawa. Sapporo’s annual mean is 9.2C and Asahikawa’s is 7.2C.
| JMA normal, 1991-2020 | Sapporo | Asahikawa |
|---|---|---|
| January mean temperature | -3.2C | -7.0C |
| January mean daily minimum | -6.4C | -11.7C |
| August mean temperature | 22.3C | 21.2C |
| August mean daily maximum | 26.4C | 26.6C |
| Annual mean temperature | 9.2C | 7.2C |
| Annual precipitation | 1,146.1 mm | 1,104.4 mm |
| Annual total snowfall | 479 cm | 557 cm |
| Deepest snow cover, annual normal | 97 cm | 89 cm |
| Days with snow, annual normal | 134.5 | 151.5 |
One line in that table is easy to misread. The annual total snowfall figure, 479 cm at Sapporo, is the depth of snow that falls over a season added up month by month, and the normal for the deepest snow lying on the ground at any one time is 97 cm. Sapporo’s snowfall arrives mainly in three months: 137 cm in January, 116 cm in February and 113 cm in December. Those three months carry 366 cm of the 479 cm annual figure, a sum taken here from the monthly rows. Asahikawa’s heaviest month is December at 158 cm.
Summer is a different question from any of this. Sapporo’s August mean daily maximum is 26.4C and Asahikawa’s is 26.6C, so the inland site that is 3.8 degrees colder in January is 0.2 degrees warmer at the top of a normal August day; both comparisons are subtractions from the table above. The prefectural data book adds the geography behind that split, describing a spine of mountain ranges running north to south through the middle of the island and naming Kussharo as the largest caldera lake in Japan and giving its area as 79.5 square kilometres, against 151.6 for Lake Saroma, 78.5 for Lake Shikotsu and 70.7 for Lake Toya.
Only 3 of the 20 deepest-snow records are in Hokkaido, and 9 of them are in Niigata
The deepest-snow ranking is dominated by the Sea of Japan side of Honshu rather than by the north. The first entry is Ibukiyama in Shiga Prefecture at 1,182 cm on 14 February 1927, followed by Sukayu in Aomori at 566 cm in February 2013 and Sumon in Niigata at 463 cm in February 1981. The Hokkaido entries begin at 17th place: Horokanai at 324 cm in February 2018, Kutchan at 312 cm in March 1970 and Shumarinai at 311 cm in March 1982. Counting the rows gives 9 entries for Niigata against 3 for Hokkaido. Three of the Niigata values, including the 463 cm at Sumon, carry a bracket mark that the agency defines on the same page as meaning the daily deepest snow on the date of the record was an insufficient-data value.
The agency’s note on this ranking adds a timing caveat that matters if the figures are checked in winter: the deepest-snow values on the national page are current to the previous day, while the per-site monthly values are current to the previous month, so a record set in the current month can appear on one page and not the other.
Hokkaido Jingu changes its gate times across nine dated bands, and five of them cover the New Year
The shrine at Maruyama in Sapporo publishes a table of opening and closing times rather than a single pair of hours. Four bands cover the rest of the year: 7:00 to 16:00 from 1 February to the end of February, 7:00 to 17:00 from 1 March to 31 March, 6:00 to 17:00 from 1 April to 31 October, and 7:00 to 16:00 from 1 November to 30 December. Five more cover the New Year: 7:00 to 18:00 on 31 December, 0:00 to 19:00 on 1 January, 6:00 to 18:00 on 2 and 3 January, 6:00 to 16:00 from 4 to 7 January, and 7:00 to 16:00 from 8 to 31 January. That is nine bands in all, and the longest opening in the table is 1 January at 19 hours, counted here from the published times.
| Period at Hokkaido Jingu | Gates open | Gates close |
|---|---|---|
| 31 December | 7:00 | 18:00 |
| 1 January | 0:00 | 19:00 |
| 2 to 3 January | 6:00 | 18:00 |
| 4 to 7 January | 6:00 | 16:00 |
| 8 to 31 January | 7:00 | 16:00 |
| 1 February to end of February | 7:00 | 16:00 |
| 1 March to 31 March | 7:00 | 17:00 |
| 1 April to 31 October | 6:00 | 17:00 |
| 1 November to 30 December | 7:00 | 16:00 |
The shrine’s own account of its origins is dated. In 1869 the territory then called Ezo was renamed Hokkaido, and on 1 September of the same year three deities of development, Okunitama, Onamuchi and Sukunahikona, were enshrined at a ceremony in Tokyo. The object of worship was carried to Hakodate, then to a temporary office at Zenibako, and reached Sapporo in December of that year. The shrine moved to a temporary building in what is now Kita 2-jo Higashi 1-chome in May 1870, took the name Sapporo Jinja in May 1871, and moved to the present site at Maruyama that September. Emperor Meiji was added as a fourth deity in 1964, and the name changed to Hokkaido Jingu at the same time. The shrine buildings were destroyed by arson in November 1974 and rebuilt in 1978, and the worship hall was remodelled in 1988 into its present form.
For getting there, the shrine’s access page gives three routes from JR Sapporo Station: the subway to Maruyama-koen on the Tozai Line and 15 minutes on foot, a JR bus to the Hokkaido Jingu stop and 1 minute on foot, or 15 minutes by taxi. Our page on what changes at Maruyama Zoo once the snow arrives covers the animals kept at that zoo in winter.
Sources Checked
Hokkaido Government, Public Relations Division – Hokkaido Data Book 2025, physical geography
Confirmed the area of 83,422 square kilometres as at 1 January 2025 and the share of about 22.1 per cent, the comparisons with Tokyo at 37.9 times and with Austria, the statement that this is the largest prefectural area, the make-up of Japan as five main islands plus 14,125 islands and of Hokkaido as its main island plus 1,472 islands, the northern and southern limits at 45 degrees 33 minutes and 41 degrees 21 minutes north, Asahidake at 2,291 m, the wetland share of more than 80 per cent, the counts of 1,133 class-one and 467 class-two rivers, the mountain ranges running north to south, and Kussharo as the largest caldera lake in Japan with Kussharo at 79.5, Saroma at 151.6, Shikotsu at 78.5 and Toya at 70.7 square kilometres.
https://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ss/tkk/databook/223724.html
Hokkaido Government – list of the 179 municipalities by subprefectural bureau
Confirmed the figure of 179 municipalities, the division into 9 general subprefectural bureaus and 5 subprefectural bureaus, and the 14 names listed on the page.
https://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/link/shichoson/
Japan Meteorological Agency – all-time national rankings
Confirmed the lowest-temperature entries of -41.0C at Asahikawa on 25 January 1902, -38.2C at Obihiro on 26 January 1902, -38.1C at Edanbetsu on 17 February 1978 and -38.0C at the summit of Mount Fuji on 27 February 1981, the composition of the top 20 and the dates of its entries, the lowest daily maximum entries of -32.0C at Mount Fuji in January 1936 and -22.5C at Asahikawa on 12 January 1909, the deepest-snow entries of 1,182 cm at Ibukiyama on 14 February 1927, 566 cm at Sukayu in February 2013, 463 cm at Sumon in February 1981, 324 cm at Horokanai in February 2018, 312 cm at Kutchan in March 1970 and 311 cm at Shumarinai in March 1982, the note that an asterisk marks an observatory-class site and that AMeDAS statistics begin in 1976, the note on the timing of the deepest-snow values, and the note that a bracket mark on a deepest-snow value means the daily deepest snow on the date of the record was an insufficient-data value.
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/stats/etrn/view/rankall.php
Japan Meteorological Agency – climate normals for Sapporo, station Sapporo in Ishikari
Confirmed the 1991-2020 statistical period with 30 years of data behind every column, the Sapporo column of the comparison table above, and the monthly snowfall normals of 137 cm in January, 116 cm in February and 113 cm in December.
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=14&block_no=47412
Japan Meteorological Agency – climate normals for Asahikawa, station Asahikawa in Kamikawa
Confirmed the 1991-2020 statistical period with 30 years of data behind every column, the Asahikawa column of the comparison table above, the February mean daily minimum of -11.8C and the December snowfall normal of 158 cm. The cloud cover, fog days and thunder days columns on this page carry the mark the page defines as a reference value, and none of those columns is used here.
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=12&block_no=47407
Hokkaido Jingu – access and precinct guide, read on 24 September 2026
Confirmed the nine dated bands of opening and closing times in the table above, the split the page makes between five New Year bands and four year-round bands, and the three routes from JR Sapporo Station.
http://www.hokkaidojingu.or.jp/access.html
Hokkaido Jingu – history page, read on 24 September 2026
Confirmed the four deities and the 1964 addition of Emperor Meiji with the change of name, the 1869 renaming of the territory and the enshrinement ceremony of 1 September that year, the route through Hakodate, Zenibako and Sapporo, the 1870 temporary building at Kita 2-jo Higashi 1-chome, the name Sapporo Jinja from May 1871 and the move to Maruyama that September, the arson of November 1974 and the rebuilding in 1978, and the 1988 remodelling of the worship hall.
http://www.hokkaidojingu.or.jp/history.html
Last updated: September 2026
