The Shinkansen’s terminus is not Hakodate Station. It is Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, which Hakodate City’s own station list places in Hokuto City, about 18.0 kilometres from Hakodate Station by road. The connecting train covers that gap in 15 minutes at its fastest.
That split is what reorganises a Hakodate arrival, and the two city halls on either side of it publish figures that do not quite line up. What follows is what each of them prints, plus the tram fares, the IC card rule and the morning market hours.
The station named after Hakodate sits in the next municipality
Hakodate City’s page on the Hokkaido Shinkansen lists four stations on the section that opened, each with its municipality in brackets: Shin-Aomori Station in Aomori City and Oku-Tsugaru-Imabetsu Station in Imabetsu Town, both in Aomori Prefecture, then Kikonai Station in Kikonai Town and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station in Hokuto City. The section from Shin-Aomori opened on 26 March 2016 and the page gives its length as about 149 kilometres.
Hokuto City says the same thing from its own side. Its page records that Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, the first and terminal station of the Hokkaido Shinkansen, opened in Hokuto City on 26 March 2016, and that the Hokuto City Tourism Exchange Centre is attached to it at 1-1-1 Ichinowatari, Hokuto. The second-floor rest and work space is open from 05:40 to 23:50, hours the page ties to the station building’s own.
Hokuto City also publishes road distances and taxi times from the station, in two tables: one for transport facilities and a longer one for tourist sites. The transport table has six rows, and the three below are the ones that bear on reaching Hakodate. The other three are the Tsugaru Strait ferry terminal at about 13.5 kilometres and about 30 minutes, Onuma-koen Station at about 11.5 and about 25, and Kikonai Station at about 37.5 and about 50. The three rows below carry an oddity.
| Destination from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto | Distance | Taxi time |
|---|---|---|
| Hakodate Station | about 18.0 km | about 40 minutes |
| Goryokaku Station | about 16.5 km | about 35 minutes |
| Hakodate Airport | about 26.5 km | about 35 minutes |
Hakodate Airport is 8.5 kilometres further from the station than Hakodate Station is, by our subtraction, and the same table gives it the shorter taxi time. Goryokaku Station and the airport differ by 10.0 kilometres in their distance from the station, again our subtraction, and the table gives them the same 35-minute entry. The page does not publish a distance between those two places, so the 10.0 is a gap between two distances and not a journey. It also attaches a note that the times vary with road congestion and with the route, which it says is calculated over the Hakodate-Esashi Expressway, the Hakodate Shin-Gaikanjo road and the Hakodate Shindo, and should be treated as a guide. For pricing a taxi the distance column is the one that carries the information.
The two city halls print fastest times to Tokyo a minute apart
Both cities publish the fastest Shinkansen times for the same station, and both pages carry the date 26 March 2025. The figures are not identical.
| Fastest journey | Hokuto City page | Hakodate City page |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 3 hours 58 minutes | 3 hours 57 minutes |
| Sendai | 2 hours 26 minutes | 2 hours 25 minutes |
| Shin-Aomori | 57 minutes | 57 minutes |
The gap is one minute on two of the three rows and nil on the third. It is not safe to call that a contradiction, because the two pages are not labelled the same way: Hokuto writes its figures as times from Tokyo Station, Sendai Station and Shin-Aomori Station to the Shinkansen station, while Hakodate writes them as times from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto to Tokyo, Sendai and Shin-Aomori. A one-minute difference between the two directions of travel is exactly what a timetable can produce. What the pair of pages does establish is that neither of them prints a single figure for Tokyo to Hakodate Station: both stop at the Shinkansen station, and the connecting leg is quoted separately.
The Hakodate Liner closes the gap in 15 minutes, and the line underneath it changes hands
Hakodate City states that the access train between Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto and Hakodate Station is the Hakodate Liner and that it covers the distance in 15 minutes at its fastest. The taxi table gives about 40 minutes for the same journey. The two figures are not measured the same way, one being a fastest time and the other an approximate one, so the 25-minute gap between them, which is our subtraction, is a rough comparison rather than a like-for-like one.
The same page explains why the arrangement is temporary. When the Hokkaido Shinkansen extension to Sapporo opens, the Hakodate Line between Hakodate and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto will be separated from JR Hokkaido’s management, and Hakodate City has carried out a study into bringing the Shinkansen into Hakodate Station itself. The extension from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto to Sapporo is under construction with completion targeted for the 2030 financial year or later.
The city also records the visitor figure for the first year of service: in the 2016 financial year, the opening year, tourist arrivals in Hakodate reached a record of about 5.6 million. The Shinkansen itself is one of the integrated Shinkansen lines under the Nationwide Shinkansen Railway Development Act, with the Aomori to Sapporo route set out in the 1973 development plan.
Over 7 kilometres the adult tram fare is exactly double the child fare
Hakodate’s tram fares are not flat. The city’s transport pages state that the fare is paid on alighting and is charged on a distance-based zone system, revised on 1 December 2025.
| Distance | Adult | Child |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 2 km | 250 yen | 130 yen |
| Up to 4 km | 270 yen | 140 yen |
| Up to 7 km | 290 yen | 150 yen |
| Over 7 km | 300 yen | 150 yen |
The child column stops climbing one band before the adult column does. At up to 7 kilometres and over 7 kilometres the child pays the same 150 yen, while the adult goes from 290 to 300. On the longest band the adult fare is twice the child fare exactly, 300 against 150, which is our division. On the shortest band the ratio is 250 to 130, which is not two.
The city defines an adult, for this purpose, as a passenger of junior high school age or above, and a child as one from the age of one to the end of primary school. Three further notes sit under the fare list and none of them is in the table. A child below school age travels free, up to four such children for each accompanying passenger. A passenger with a physical or intellectual disability pays half the fare, rounded up to the nearest 10 yen. A carer accompanying the holder of a physical disability certificate or a rehabilitation certificate also pays half, rounded the same way. The page also links a separate fare comparison for disabled passengers and a fare triangle table whose upper figure is the adult fare and whose lower figure is the distance in kilometres. It also publishes worked fares between named stops. From Jujigai, Hakodate-ekimae and Matsukazecho cost 250 yen, Goryokaku-koen-mae and Arena-mae 290, and Yunokawa-onsen and Yunokawa 300. From Hakodate-ekimae, Jujigai and Suehirocho cost 250, Goryokaku-koen-mae 270, and Arena-mae, Yunokawa-onsen and Yunokawa 290. From Goryokaku-koen-mae, Matsukazecho and Hakodate-ekimae cost 270, Jujigai and Suehirocho 290, and Arena-mae, Yunokawa-onsen and Yunokawa 270. From Yunokawa, Goryokaku-koen-mae costs 270, Matsukazecho and Hakodate-ekimae 290, and Jujigai and Suehirocho 300.
Across those four starting points the 300-yen band appears on four of the printed pairings: from Jujigai to Yunokawa-onsen and Yunokawa, and from Yunokawa to Jujigai and Suehirocho.
A nationally interoperable IC card removes one of the tram’s five boarding steps
The city’s page on using an IC card on the Hakodate tram sets out five numbered steps and one exemption. The steps are to board by the centre door, touch the boarding reader, press the alighting signal button when the announcement names the stop, read the fare off the in-car chart against the boarding slip number, and touch the alighting reader on the way out. The exemption removes the fourth of those: passengers using ICAS nimoca or any of the nationally interoperable transport IC cards do not need to take a numbered boarding slip at all, so for them the sequence is to board, touch, press the button and touch again.
That exemption is the practical answer to whether a card brought from elsewhere in Japan is of any use in Hakodate: on the tram, the city’s fare page names Suica, PASMO and Kitaca among them, alongside its local ICAS nimoca. The page has been in place since August 2022.
The morning market opens at 05:00 for eight months and 06:00 for four
The Hakodate morning market publishes its hours in two seasonal blocks, and notes that they are open year-round and that times differ from shop to shop.
From January to April the market runs from 06:00 until a little after 14:00. From May to December it runs from 05:00 until a little after 14:00. That is a one-hour difference applying to four months of the year and eight months of the year respectively, which is our count from the two published blocks. The market’s freephone number is 0120-858-313.
For an early arrival the practical consequence is that a visitor arriving between January and April has one hour less at the front of the day than one arriving between May and December, and that the closing time does not move.
The city holds 230,065 people on 677.82 square kilometres
Hakodate City publishes its resident-register figures monthly. At the end of September 2026 the city counted 230,065 residents in 137,234 households, with 104,897 men and 125,168 women. The page was updated on 7 October 2026.
By age band the city counts 18,646 residents aged 0 to 14, or 8.1 per cent; 124,369 aged 15 to 64, or 54.1 per cent; and 87,050 aged 65 and over, or 37.8 per cent. The three counts add to the published total and the three percentages add to 100.0, both of which are our additions; the city attaches a standing note that rounding can stop its percentages totalling 100.
The city’s overview page gives an area of 677.82 square kilometres as of 1 July 2026, citing the national area survey compiled by the Geospatial Information Authority under the land ministry. Dividing the population by the area gives about 339 residents per square kilometre, which is our division. City hall sits at longitude 140 degrees 44 minutes east and latitude 41 degrees 46 minutes north, in the south-east of the Oshima Peninsula, with the Pacific and the Tsugaru Strait on three sides and Hokuto City, Nanae Town and Shikabe Town to the west.
For how the rest of the island behaves in winter, see our separate note on how Hokkaido holds 19 of the 20 lowest temperature records.
Sources Checked
City of Hakodate — about the Hokkaido Shinkansen, published 29 March 2024 and updated 26 March 2025
Confirmed that the Hokkaido Shinkansen is an integrated Shinkansen under the Nationwide Shinkansen Railway Development Act with the Aomori to Sapporo route set out in the 1973 development plan; that the Shin-Aomori to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto section opened on 26 March 2016 and that tourist arrivals in Hakodate reached a record of about 5.6 million in the 2016 financial year; that the Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto to Sapporo section is targeted for the 2030 financial year or later; that the station list for the opened section names four stations with their municipalities, Shin-Aomori Station in Aomori City, Oku-Tsugaru-Imabetsu Station in Imabetsu Town, Kikonai Station in Kikonai Town and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station in Hokuto City, and that the section length is about 149 kilometres; that the fastest times given from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto are 3 hours 57 minutes to Tokyo, 2 hours 25 minutes to Sendai and 57 minutes to Shin-Aomori; that the Hakodate Liner links Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto and Hakodate Station in 15 minutes at its fastest; and that the Hakodate Line between Hakodate and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto will be separated from JR Hokkaido’s management on the Sapporo extension, with the city having studied bringing the Shinkansen into Hakodate Station.
https://www.city.hakodate.hokkaido.jp/docs/2014031800377/
Hokuto City — the Hokkaido Shinkansen and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station, page dated 26 March 2025
Confirmed that Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto opened in Hokuto City on 26 March 2016 as the first and terminal station of the Hokkaido Shinkansen; that the fastest times given are 3 hours 58 minutes from Tokyo Station, 2 hours 26 minutes from Sendai Station and 57 minutes from Shin-Aomori Station; that the second-floor rest and work space is open from 05:40 to 23:50, in line with the station building’s own opening hours; that the Hokuto City Tourism Exchange Centre is attached to the station at 1-1-1 Ichinowatari, Hokuto; and that a municipal multi-storey car park stands on the east side of the station.
https://www.city.hokuto.hokkaido.jp/docs/1998.html
Hokuto City — onward transport from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station, page dated 22 May 2026
Confirmed that the transport-facility table has six rows and gives about 18.0 km and about 40 minutes to Hakodate Station, about 16.5 km and about 35 minutes to Goryokaku Station, about 26.5 km and about 35 minutes to Hakodate Airport, about 13.5 km and about 30 minutes to the Tsugaru Strait ferry terminal, about 11.5 km and about 25 minutes to Onuma-koen Station and about 37.5 km and about 50 minutes to Kikonai Station; that a second, longer table covers tourist sites; and the note that the times vary with congestion and route, are calculated over the Hakodate-Esashi Expressway, the Hakodate Shin-Gaikanjo road and the Hakodate Shindo, and should be treated as a guide.
https://www.city.hokuto.hokkaido.jp/docs/1999.html
City of Hakodate — tram fares, published 1 December 2025 and updated 17 April 2026
Confirmed that the fare is paid on alighting under a distance-based zone system revised on 1 December 2025; the adult fares of 250, 270, 290 and 300 yen for up to 2 km, up to 4 km, up to 7 km and over 7 km; the child fares of 130, 140, 150 and 150 yen for the same bands; that an adult means a passenger of junior high school age or above and a child one from the age of one to the end of primary school; that children below school age travel free up to four per accompanying passenger; that a passenger with a physical or intellectual disability pays half, rounded up to the nearest 10 yen, as does a carer accompanying the holder of a physical disability certificate or a rehabilitation certificate; that the page links a separate fare comparison for disabled passengers and a fare triangle table whose upper figure is the adult fare and lower figure the distance in kilometres; and the worked fares from Jujigai of 250 yen to Hakodate-ekimae and Matsukazecho, 290 to Goryokaku-koen-mae and Arena-mae and 300 to Yunokawa-onsen and Yunokawa, from Hakodate-ekimae of 250 to Jujigai and Suehirocho, 270 to Goryokaku-koen-mae and 290 to Arena-mae, Yunokawa-onsen and Yunokawa, from Goryokaku-koen-mae of 270 to Matsukazecho and Hakodate-ekimae, 290 to Jujigai and Suehirocho and 270 to Arena-mae, Yunokawa-onsen and Yunokawa, and from Yunokawa of 270 to Goryokaku-koen-mae, 290 to Matsukazecho and Hakodate-ekimae and 300 to Jujigai and Suehirocho.
https://www.city.hakodate.hokkaido.jp/docs/2014012100946/
City of Hakodate — riding the Hakodate tram with an IC card, published 18 August 2022
Confirmed the five numbered steps — board by the centre door, touch the boarding reader, press the alighting signal button, check the fare against the boarding slip number on the in-car chart, and touch the alighting reader on leaving — that the fare is paid on alighting, and that passengers using ICAS nimoca or a nationally interoperable transport IC card do not need a numbered boarding slip. The page was published on 18 August 2022 and updated on 1 April 2025.
https://www.city.hakodate.hokkaido.jp/docs/2017040600044/
Hakodate Morning Market — opening hours
Confirmed that the market is open year-round with hours differing by shop, that January to April hours are 06:00 to a little after 14:00, that May to December hours are 05:00 to a little after 14:00, and the freephone number 0120-858-313.
https://www.hakodate-asaichi.com/
City of Hakodate — population of Hakodate City from the resident register, updated 7 October 2026
Confirmed that at the end of September 2026 the city held 137,234 households and 230,065 residents, of whom 104,897 were men and 125,168 women; the age bands of 18,646 at 8.1 per cent, 124,369 at 54.1 per cent and 87,050 at 37.8 per cent; and the standing note that rounding can stop the percentages totalling 100.
https://www.city.hakodate.hokkaido.jp/docs/2015020600107/
City of Hakodate — outline of Hakodate City, updated 7 October 2026
Confirmed the city area of 677.82 square kilometres as of 1 July 2026 citing the Geospatial Information Authority’s national area survey; the city hall position of longitude 140 degrees 44 minutes east and latitude 41 degrees 46 minutes north; and the description of the city as lying in the south-east of the Oshima Peninsula, bounded east, south and north by the Pacific and the Tsugaru Strait and bordering Hokuto City, Nanae Town and Shikabe Town to the west.
https://www.city.hakodate.hokkaido.jp/docs/2014020600063/
Last updated: October 2026
