insights from frontier Japan

"How about some wedding memorial photos amidst the beautiful scenery of Bihoro?" Bihoro Town based planning company Active Management (President: Kimura Toshiaki) in the Eastern Hokkaido Okhotsk region launched a photo wedding plan in partnership with a professional studio photographer. Participants can don a rental wedding dress and tuxedo and take photos amidst magnificent local scenery like Bihoro Pass.

A serving CEO of a university-launched start-up company has become the first to concurrently serve as a full-time faculty member of Hokkaido University. During the day, Amano Maho works as a lecturer at the Graduate School of Medicine and, at night, her attention turns to business strategies and fundraising as an executive aiming to promote ‘opto-diagnostics’ to determine the effects of leukemia drugs before they are put to use.

With the rapidly growing popularity of esports, more and more people are watching tournaments and matches online, expanding the size of the market. Hokkaido is no exception to the boom, with professional teams sprouting up one after another in anticipation of further growth and the Hokkaido Esports Festival — a major event (organized by the Hokkaido Esports Association whose members include the Hokkaido Shimbun) — recently hosting its second annual gathering.

"Fuji Reika" is an ice cream shop in the Southern Hokkaido city of Hakodate that produces and sells the ice cream called "Dassai Sake Kasu Ice", and it has recently started exporting that product to China. Sake producer Asahi Shuzo (Yamaguchi Prefecture) supplies the sake kasu (a brewing byproduct) for the ice cream, and is also involved in the export plans. Exports started at 24,000 units up front this first month alone. For November, they have received orders for 168,000 units. This is the first large-scale exporting of this ice cream brand, and the shop expressed surprise that, "ice cream made by a small family run shop should garner this level of response."

Test operation of a ‘Tomamu-Furano Bus’ service – a free, round-trip service that departs from JR Furano Station, stops at stations near tourist spots in the town of Minamifurano in central Hokkaido, before heading to Tomamu Station in the village of Shimukappu to the south of Minamifurano – began on July 31.

Hokkaido’s first ‘MUJI HOUSE’ complete with ‘MUJI’ brand furniture and miscellaneous goods, is to be established next April in the town of Kamishihoro in the Tokachi region.

It has been revealed that the UK hotel chain, IHG Hotels & Resorts, which develops the ‘InterContinetal’ brand in Japan, is planning a luxury brand hotel ‘Six Senses Hotel Resort and Spa’ in the town of Kutchan in the Niseko region. It is hoped the hotel will open in 2024 or ’25.

With the COVID-19 pandemic having wiped out inbound travel, some Hokkaido companies are seeking opportunities in China, the world’s second largest economy, which already seems to be recovering from the impact of the virus.

Farmer Hayashi Kenji (52), who runs hot spring facilities called "Kogane Onsen" in central Hokkaido's Rankoshi Town, will launch a delivery service in March of hot spring water attained at his own private home property. The water will be delivered in tanks by truck to vacation homes and lodging facilities in areas including the nearby Niseko region.