insights from frontier Japan

A Russian folk art exhibit and market started on August 23 at the Japan-Russia Friendship Hall in Northern Hokkaido's Wakkanai City. The folk art items were imported via a cargo charter ship connecting Wakkanai to Sakhalin, on its first run this year in July. A bounty of items including unique nesting "matryoshka" dolls and traditional crafts painted in the colorful and traditional "khokhloma" style is expected to attract many visitors.

The first voyage of this year’s Wakkanai-Russia-Sakhalin cargo ship charter project being undertaken by the ‘Wakkanai-Korsakov Regular Route Usage Promotion Council’ made up of local governments and economic organizations in northern Hokkaido, has arrived at the port of Wakkanai.

Heart Land Ferry (Sapporo), which operates the Wakkanai-Rishiri/Rebun route, has been added to the ‘voyage stamp-rally project’ in which shipping companies throughout Japan participate. The company has begun selling ‘voyage stamp cards’ – based on the image of ‘worship stamps’ available to visitors to temples and shrines – at the kiosk inside the Wakkanai Port Ferry Terminal.

On June 18, Fujita Masaki (36) of Fuji Construction Co., Ltd. in Wakkanai, was tentatively selected to represent Japan in the cycling event at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Fujita is an experienced athlete who up to and including the previous Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, competed in three consecutive Games, winning 5 medals. Family and friends expressed their joy at the announcement, saying they hope he brings home a gold medal.

Runway encroachment issues are causing bird control headaches at Wakkanai Airport in Northern Hokkaido. Encroachment has greatly increased since 2019, and at the peak from summer to autumn, several hundred birds can often be seen resting their wings on the runway in scenes reminiscent of a “bird paradise”. In the latest bird-strike count of 2019, which records the frequency of cases in which birds collide with planes, the rate had risen to approximately 10 times that of New Chitose Airport.

Monitor tours exploring the potential for Northern Hokkaido tourism promotion using Northern Hokkaido's Wakkanai Airport started on March 23.

A student networking event was held online on February 13, linking Wakkanai Hokusei Gakuen University located in northern Hokkaido's Wakkanai City and Sakhalin State University located in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. The students exchanged opinions under the theme, "How young people see the future of Hokkaido and Sakhalin Oblast".

A colorful doll display has appeared in the visitor center of Hokkaido Soya Fureai Park in advance of the March 3rd Momo no Sekku (Peach Festival) day for praying that girls will grow up healthily. The display is a delight to the eyes for everyone who visits.

From the end of last year to New Year’s Day, the ‘northernmost point of Japan’ at Cape Soya in the city of Wakkanai in Northern Hokkaido was visited by tourists welcoming in the new year. However, due to the effects of the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the number of visitors was only one tenth of that of normal years.