Hidaka 日高町

• Hidaka (日高): in 1942 a council met to rename Usappu Village. It proposed "Hidaka" because the village lies at the foot of the Hidaka Mountains, and everyone present agreed. The new name took effect in 1943.³ The name "Hidaka" itself goes back to Hidaka Province (1869), which was named on the proposal of the explorer Matsuura Takeshirō. He linked the area with Hitakami no kuni (日高見国), a land of the Emishi mentioned in the Nihon Shoki.²²
• Usappu (右左府): the Hokkaido Government asked the village to change this name because it was hard to hear and unclear.³ The pre-1943 district names listed alongside it, such as Ushappu (ウシヤツプ) and Panke-Ushappu (パンケウシヤツプ), show that it transcribed an Ainu name.³ No source consulted gives its meaning.
• Monbetsu (門別): the name comes from Ainu mo-pet, "quiet river", the Ainu name of the Hidaka-Monbetsu River. "Hidaka" was added to the station name to tell it apart from Monbetsu (紋別) in Okhotsk, which has the same origin.²³ People still say "Hidaka-Monbetsu" for the same reason.²⁴
• Saru (沙流): the name is usually traced to Ainu sar ("reed marsh"), as in sar-un-kur, "people who live in the reed marsh". The missionary John Batchelor recorded an older name, Sisirmuka. He took it to mean "truly blocked up", because silt often closes the river mouth.²⁵ In the Ainu kamuy yukar, Sisirmuka is the name the gods use for the river.¹⁶
• Local names: Tomikawa (富川) was called Sarufuto (佐瑠太) until its station was renamed in 1944. The old name comes from Ainu sar-putu, "mouth of the Saru".²⁶ Atsuga (厚賀) was coined from the first characters of Atsubetsu (厚別) and Kabari (賀張), because the station stood on their boundary. Kabari is thought to come from kapar, "flat", a reference to the flat reefs off the shore.²⁷

• Ainu era: the Saru basin was a heartland of Ainu life. The kamuy yukar call the river the gods' homeland.¹⁶ The Appetsu Chashi (アッペツチャシ跡), an Ainu fort site, became a national historic site on 2 December 1997, together with the Shibechari River chashi group in Shinhidaka. Also protected is the Monbetsu Tonika mounded tomb group (門別冨仁家盛土墳墓群) in Tomikawa, a Hokkaido historic site since 24 December 1963; the sources consulted do not date it.²⁸
• Edo period: the Matsumae domain opened the Saru trading post (サル場所). The coastal road from Hakodate to eastern Ezo, forerunner of Route 235, ran through the area, and kitamae-bune cargo ships sometimes called at Monbetsu. The shogunate took direct control in 1799, returned the area to Matsumae in 1821 and took it back in 1855, with the Sendai domain in charge of its defence.⁸
• Early Meiji: Hidaka Province and Saru District were created in 1869. Until the domains were abolished in 1871, the south-west of the district was assigned to the Hikone domain and the rest to Sendai.⁸ The 1876 district list includes Sarufuto, Tonika, Hiraga, Monbetsu, Kabari and Atsubetsu villages.⁸ No source consulted records where the Meiji-era settlers came from.
• Railways and villages (1909–1924): Monbetsu Village was formed in 1909.⁸ The Tomakomai Light Railway reached Sarufuto (now Tomikawa) in 1913, and the Saru tramway to Biratori opened in 1922. In 1924 the Hidaka Takushoku Railway reached Atsuga. These lines were nationalized in 1927 as the Hidaka Line.²⁶ Inland, Usappu Village split off in 1919.⁸
• Shōwa era: Usappu was renamed Hidaka in 1943. Monbetsu became a town in 1952 and Hidaka in 1962.⁸ The Tomiuchi Line (富内線) reached Hidaka-chō Station on 5 November 1964. It closed on 1 November 1986 and was replaced by Dōnan Bus.²⁹ Freight from the terminus was mainly timber.³⁰ The National Hidaka Youth Nature Center opened in 1981–82.³¹ Hokkaido Keiba's Monbetsu training center was completed in 1985, after horses began moving in from 1982.¹¹
• 1990s: Michi-no-Eki Jukai Road Hidaka was registered on 5 August 1996.³² Monbetsu Racecourse opened on 8 December 1997, after the training track was rebuilt for about ¥1.5 billion.³¹¹ Monbetsu Onsen opened in 1999.³ The Hidaka Mountains Center opened on 26 June 1999 and was renamed the Hidaka Mountains Museum in 2012.³³
• Merger (2002–2006): Hidaka faced serious financial strain and began merger talks in 2002 with Biratori and Monbetsu. Hobetsu and Mukawa joined by 2003, but Biratori was reluctant to merge with Monbetsu, the largest town in the group. Mukawa and Hobetsu then withdrew, and Biratori left in September 2004. A second referendum in Hidaka in 2005 found about 70% of residents in favor of merging with Monbetsu alone. The non-contiguous merger took effect on 1 March 2006, with the town hall in Monbetsu.³
• Roads and rail: the Hidaka Expressway reached Hidaka-Tomikawa IC on 19 March 2006, Hidaka-Monbetsu IC on 17 March 2012 and Hidaka-Atsuga IC on 21 April 2018.³⁴ On 28 February 2026 it was extended 9.1 km to Niikappu IC.³⁵ High waves washed out the Hidaka Main Line in January 2015. The Mukawa–Samani section was formally abolished on 1 April 2021, leaving the town without rail service.²⁶
• Disasters: in August 2016, heavy rain from Typhoon No. 10 washed away bridge piers on Route 274. The road between the Hidaka townsite and Nissho Pass was closed for a long time.¹⁶
• Recent years: the national park was designated on 25 June 2024.¹⁵ The 50th Monbetsu Shishamo Festival was cancelled the same year.¹⁸ The Tomikuru complex (とみくる) opened in Tomikawa on 1 October 2025.³⁶ The TBS Sunday drama The Royal Family was partly filmed in the town, and its props were on show at Tomikuru in 2026.³⁷

• Position: the town follows the Saru River from its source to the sea, in the north of Hidaka Subprefecture. It borders Iburi, Kamikawa and Tokachi, which makes it the gateway to Hidaka.³

• Two landscapes: the north-east rises to the Hidaka Mountains, called "the roof of Hokkaido". The south-west is gentle country where the Saru, Monbetsu, Hae, Kenomai, Kabari and Atsubetsu rivers run into the Pacific.¹

• Saru River: the river is 104 km long and drains 1,350 km². It rises on Kumami-yama (1,175 m) on the Shimizu border and meets the sea at Tomikawa.²⁵¹⁶

• Peaks: Japanese Wikipedia lists the peaks in the town, which include:³

  • Peak 1967 (1967峰, 1,967 m)
  • Kita-Totsutabetsu-dake (北戸蔦別岳, 1,912 m)
  • Chiroro-dake (チロロ岳, 1,880 m)
  • Memuro-dake (芽室岳, 1,754 m)
  • Saru-dake (沙流岳, 1,422 m)

• Passes: Route 274 crosses Nissho Pass (日勝峠, 1,020 m) into Tokachi, and Route 237 crosses Hidaka Pass (日高峠, 500 m).³

• Protected areas: the Hidaka range runs about 150 km north to south, with peaks of 1,500–2,000 m. Its landscape includes glacial cirques and knife-edge ridges.¹⁵ The mountains and the upper Saru lie in the national park.³ The primeval forest at the Saru's source near Nissho Pass has been a national natural monument since 4 December 1970.¹⁶²⁸

• Land use: forest covers 795.80 km², or 80.2% of the town. Fields cover 55.31 km², pasture 37.84 km² and paddy 16.59 km².¹² About 74% of the 81,302 ha of forest is national forest.¹²

• Climate, Hidaka district: the JMA station "Hidaka" sits at 280 m in Honchō-higashi.³ Its 1991–2020 normals are:³⁸

  • mean temperature 6.3 °C, with January at −7.6 °C and August at 20.2 °C
  • precipitation 1,324.3 mm
  • snowfall 495 cm, with a typical deepest snow cover of 84 cm

  Records are 35.8 °C (31 July 2021), −27.8 °C (4 February 2010), 122 cm of snow on the ground (7 March 1987) and 308 mm of rain in one day (9 August 2003).³⁹

• Climate, Monbetsu district: the "Hidaka-Monbetsu" station sits at 47 m in Tomihama.³ Its 1991–2020 normals are:⁴⁰

  • mean temperature 7.6 °C, with January at −4.9 °C and August at 20.5 °C
  • precipitation 983.7 mm
  • 1,839 hours of sunshine a year, against 1,403 inland

  Records are 32.2 °C (27 July 2021) and −23.4 °C (2 February 1977).⁴¹ The inland district is continental, with big temperature swings and about 1 m of winter snow. The coast is milder, with little snow.¹

• Main industries: the Monbetsu district lives mainly on rice, field crops, dairy, horse breeding and fishing. The Hidaka district relies on field crops and forestry.³
• Horses and livestock (2022): 168 farms kept 6,406 light horses. The town also had 52 dairy farms with 4,018 cows and 45 beef farms with 3,722 cattle.¹² In 2024 the Hidaka region produced about 6,242 light-horse foals, some 80% of Japan's total.¹³
• Crops (2022): 352.5 ha were harvested, 295.2 ha of it rice. Vegetables covered 29.1 ha, including tomatoes (10.6 ha), green peppers (7.4 ha), asparagus (3.4 ha) and blanched long onions (軟白長ねぎ, 3.0 ha).¹²
• Fisheries (2022): the ports of Tomihama, Monbetsu and Atsuga landed 2,153.2 t worth ¥837 million. Tomihama alone landed 1,256.9 t. Registered fishing boats fell from 100 in 2018 to 79 in 2022.¹² The fishery also hatches and releases shishamo.³
• Companies: companies located in the town include:³
  • Hokkaido Hidaka Dairy, founded in 1987 when the Miyazaki-based Minami Nihon Rakunō group bought a Nestlé Japan plant in the town¹⁹
  • Oji Mokuzai Ryokka's Tomikawa sawmill
  • Hokkaido Electric's Hidaka power station
• Tourism: the town had 389,500 visitors in FY2025, up 7.2% on the year before. The subprefecture's report attributes the rise to more foreign and group stays at the National Hidaka Youth Nature Center and to a lodge that reopened for overnight guests.⁴² Foreign overnight guests rose from 70 to 188.⁴²
• Population and aging: the combined area had 24,885 people in 1960, the first census in the town's table. It had 11,279 in 2020. The Hidaka district fell from 6,747 to 1,347 over the same period.⁴ In 2020, 36% of residents (4,062) were 65 or older. In 2022 there were 37 births and 182 deaths.¹² Foreign residents numbered 637 on 1 January 2026, 521 of them men.⁶
• Revitalization: recent projects include:
  • the Tomikuru tourist hub (2025)³⁶
  • products tied to the national park, such as sake, a special Yogurppe package and pin badges⁴³²⁰⁴⁴
  • horse-themed campaigns with the other Hidaka towns⁴⁵

• Shrines and temples: Tomikawa Shrine (富川神社) has a sacred Daimyo oak in its grounds.⁹ Kōyasan Hidaka-ji (高野山日高寺) is temple No. 30 on the Hokkaido 33 Kannon pilgrimage.³
• Heritage buildings: the Iida family residence (飯田家住宅) has two parts on the national register of tangible cultural properties. Its reception wing in Tomikawa was registered on 19 December 2014 and its main house in Monbetsu Honchō on 17 November 2015.²⁸
• Museums: the Hidaka Mountains Museum is described under Sights. The Monbetsu Library & Local History Museum (門別図書館郷土資料館) takes school groups.⁵⁶

• Sisirmuka: in the Ainu kamuy yukar, the sister of the culture hero Okikurmi sings of "Sisirmuka, our homeland". Sisirmuka is the gods' name for the Saru River.¹⁶
• Living tradition: Ainu traditional dance (アイヌ古式舞踊) was designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property on 21 January 1984. Hidaka Town is among the places listed for it.²⁸ The local holder group is the Monbetsu Utari Culture Preservation Society (門別ウタリ文化保存会).³
• Sites and place names: the Appetsu Chashi is a national historic site (see History).²⁸ Many local names come from Ainu, including Saru, Monbetsu, Sarufuto and Kabari (see Name origin). The subprefecture notes that Hidaka is one of the regions of Hokkaido where many Ainu live. It also notes that the Hokkaido Heritage list includes Ainu place names, patterns and oral literature.¹³
• Where to learn more: the town has no dedicated Ainu cultural facility that this research could find. The main museums are upstream in Biratori. The Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum there had 23,300 visitors in FY2025.⁴²

None found. The town holds children's exchange events with neighboring Biratori, but no formal sister or friendship agreement was found.⁸¹

• Numata Yoshiaki (沼田義明, b. 1945): boxer from Monbetsu and unified WBA/WBC world junior lightweight champion. His family ran the Numata Ryokan in the town.⁸²
• Sakaguchi Nobuhiko (坂口允彦, 1908–1990): 9-dan shogi professional, born in the Tomikawa area. He was president of the Japan Shogi Association in 1953–54 and 1967–68.⁸³
• Takazawa Hideaki (高沢秀昭, b. 1958): Lotte Orions outfielder from Monbetsu who won the 1988 Pacific League batting title, effectively sealing it on the famous "10.19" day.⁸⁴
• Monbetsu Keito (門別啓人, b. 2004): left-handed pitcher for the Hanshin Tigers, born in Monbetsu.⁸⁵