Area Hokkaido Island

The northernmost and second largest of the Japanese islands, Hokkaido, is sparsely populated over the central island of Honshu, providing much greater peace and more untouched nature. The island was in fact colonized by the central government of the Meiji period only from the turn of the 1860s and 1870s – and the name of the North Sea („administrative district“) dates back to that time. Formerly known as the derogatory name Ezo – barbaric.