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Hokkaidō北海道

Hokkaidō·ほっかいどう·道 (dō), circuit

Japan's largest and northernmost prefecture, covering about a fifth of the country's land area. Its administration is divided into 14 subprefectural offices.

Hokkaidō only. The suffix comes from its history as a frontier territory. The name already ends in 道, so 北海道県 is never written.

Open Hokkaidō on the map

Facts

Japanese name
北海道
Reading
Hokkaidō / ほっかいどう
Region
Hokkaidō 北海道
Capital
Sapporo 札幌市
Population
5,224,614 (2020 census)
Area
83,424 km²
Density
63 people per km²
Municipalities
179 — 35 cities, 129 towns, and 15 villages
Designated cities
Sapporo City
Districts (郡)
61
Codes
JIS 01·ISO 3166-2 JP-01

How an address here begins

北海道札幌市…

Hokkaidō, Sapporo-shi, …

The prefecture comes first, then the municipality, then one of Sapporo's 10 wards. The guide explains the rest of the address, and the map reads any address you paste into it.

Neighbouring prefectures

Hokkaidō shares no land border with another prefecture.

Every municipality in Hokkaidō市区町村

179 local governments, each with its own mayor and assembly. Every one links to its boundary on the map.

Designated city政令指定都市

A designated city is divided into wards. The wards are offices of the city, not governments.

Other cities市

Districts, with their towns and villages郡 · 町 · 村

A district is a name that groups towns and villages in an address. It has no office and no election. The towns and villages are governments.

Listed, but not administered北方領土

Japan's official list also gives these villages, on islands administered by Russia since 1945 and claimed by Japan. They have had no working Japanese administration since then, and are not in the counts above.

Boundaries: MLIT 国土数値情報. Population: 2020 Population Census (令和2年国勢調査). Area: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (全国都道府県市区町村別面積調, 2020). Municipality counts are from the boundary data on the map.