Kushiro 釧路市

The name comes from the Ainu place name Kusuri (クスリ). A Dutch account of the ship Castricum, which anchored at Akkeshi in 1643, is considered the first written record of the name. A shogunate map of 1644 also shows it²⁷. The Meiji government fixed the names Kushiro Province and Kushiro District on the 15th day of the 8th month of Meiji 2 (1869, old lunar calendar)⁶. The kanji 釧 means "bracelet," which is the image on the city emblem¹.

The Hokkaido Government's Ainu place-name list rates the meaning as uncertain (level C) and records the theories below²⁸.

• kus-ru ("crossing path"). The route from here led over to the Shibetsu coast or Shari. Matsuura Takeshirō also noted that Ainu often travelled from here to Shari and Nemuro.
• kusuri ("medicine"). There were hot springs upstream, and medicinal water flowed down the river.
• ci-kus-ru ("the road we pass along"). This was the name of the trail to Abashiri.
• kutcaro ("throat," the outlet of a lake). A large Ainu village stood at the outlet of Lake Kussharo, the source of the Kushiro River. In this theory, the Matsumae Domain moved its people to present-day Kushiro in 1635 and named the trading post Kusuri (久寿里), a corruption of kutcaro.
• kus-pet ("a river you can pass through"). The list quotes the city's own explanation: rivers were once the main routes to Akkeshi, Nemuro, Tokachi and Abashiri. Another theory in the list is kus-sir ("the mountain across the river").

The merged areas have their own names. Akan comes from the Ainu akan, which is said to mean "unmoving," as in Mt. Oakan and Mt. Meakan²⁹. Onbetsu comes from o-mu-pet, "the river whose mouth gets blocked"⁷.

• Prehistory: people lived continuously at the Hokuto Site (北斗遺跡), on the western edge of the marsh, from about 13,000 BCE to the 13th century CE. The site has 102 pit-dwelling hollows from the Jōmon and Epi-Jōmon periods and 232 from the Satsumon period³⁰. It is one of four national historic sites in the city. The others are the Harutori Plateau pit dwellings (1935), the Higashi-Kushiro Shell Mound (1970), and the Moshiriya and Harutori-Charanke chashi (Ainu fort) sites (2015)³¹.
• Edo period: the Kusuri trading post (久寿里場所) traded with the Ainu. The Shakushain uprising of 1669 reached it too, and a Matsumae ship was attacked there²⁷. Kelp harvesting began in 1786. By 1791 the post produced about 8,000 da (pack-horse loads) of kelp a year²⁷. In 1805 the merchant Yoneya Magobei became the post's contractor and built Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社)²⁷. Inō Tadataka surveyed the area in 1800. Matsuura Takeshirō visited three times; on the third trip, in 1858, he explored Akan and wrote the Kusuri Nisshi (久摺日誌)²⁷.
• Meiji settlement: a local headman's office (釧路戸長役場) opened in Komemachi (米町) on 15 July 1880⁶. Former samurai (shizoku) from Tottori Prefecture founded Tottori Village (鳥取村) on the Akan River's west bank. The first group of 41 households (207 people) arrived on 9 June 1884, and a second group of 64 households (306 people) came in May 1885⁶. In February 1887 Yasuda Zennosuke acquired the Harutori coal mine and the Atosanupuri sulfur mine. A railway from Shibecha to the sulfur mine opened that November⁶. Kushiro Port opened to foreign trade on 4 August 1899¹³. The first Kushiro Station opened with the Kushiro–Shiranuka railway on 20 July 1901¹³. The poet Ishikawa Takuboku came as a newspaper reporter on 21 January 1908 and stayed 76 days¹³.
• Coal, paper and fish: Taiheiyo Coal Mining (太平洋炭礦) was founded on 22 April 1920. In the same year, Fuji Paper opened a mill in Tottori Village¹⁴. Fishing grew from kelp gathering into a base for the North Pacific fleets. From the mid-1960s North Pacific fishing and then sardines made Kushiro Japan's top port by catch for 1969–1977 and again for 1979–1991. The record year was 1987, with 1.33 million t³². The 200-nautical-mile limits of 1977 and the sardine collapse of 1992 ended that era³².
• War and earthquakes: US carrier aircraft bombed the area on 14–15 July 1945, killing 193 people in the city¹⁵. The Tokachi-oki earthquake of 4 March 1952 brought a 2.2 m tsunami at Chiyonoura¹⁵. The Kushiro-oki earthquake of 15 January 1993 (JMA intensity 6, M7.8 per the city chronology) killed one person and injured 439 in the city³³.
• The Akan and Onbetsu mines: in 1906 Maeda Masana (前田正名) took over the land around Lake Akan. His family later protected its forests²⁹. Coal shaped both outer towns. The Yūbetsu mine in Akan had over 3,000 workers at its peak, and its area once held more than 12,000 people. The Shakubetsu mine in Onbetsu opened in 1918. Both mines closed in 1970²⁹⁷. Onbetsu's population then fell by half from about 8,000, and the town set out to attract factories such as the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Factory⁷.
• Late 20th century: Kushiro Airport opened in July 1961³⁴. Fisherman's Wharf MOO opened in 1989³³. On 30 January 2002, Taiheiyo Coal closed after 82 years, and the new company Kushiro Coal Mine took over the mine³⁵.
• Merger and recent years: Kushiro, Akan and Onbetsu merged on 11 October 2005¹. The Ikor theater opened at Lake Akan in April 2012¹⁷. The Nippon Paper Kushiro mill had started in 1920 as Fuji Paper's mill. It stopped making paper in August 2021 and closed on 30 September 2021³⁶. In February 2023 the population dropped below 160,000 for the first time in 61 years³⁶. The Akan IC–Kushiro-nishi IC section of the Dōtō Expressway opened in December 2024³⁶.

Kushiro sits on the Pacific coast of eastern Hokkaido. The city gives its position as 42°58′10″N, 144°22′24″E¹. The city has three separate parts:

• Kushiro proper, on the coast around the mouth of the Kushiro River, with the Kushiro Marsh spreading inland to the north.
• Akan, stretching inland to Lake Akan and the volcanoes Mt. Meakan (雌阿寒岳, 1,499 m) and Mt. Oakan (雄阿寒岳, 1,371 m)²⁹.
• Onbetsu, a coastal exclave to the west, running 31.1 km north–south between the Pashikuru and Chokubetsu rivers⁷.

Protected areas

• Kushiro-shitsugen National Park (釧路湿原国立公園): designated on 31 July 1987 and covering 28,788 ha. It spans Kushiro City, Kushiro Town, Shibecha Town and Tsurui Village²⁰. The marsh was sea about 6,000 years ago³. The marsh became a Natural Monument on 6 July 1967³¹³⁷. On 17 June 1980 an area of 5,012 ha was listed under the Ramsar Convention¹⁹.
• Akan-Mashū National Park (阿寒摩周国立公園): designated on 4 December 1934 and covering 91,413 ha³⁸. Lake Akan lies in a caldera created by volcanic activity about 150,000 years ago, and the area is ringed by forests of Ezo spruce, Todo fir and Erman's birch (ダケカンバ)³. The lake is 13.25 km² in area¹¹. Wikipedia gives a maximum depth of 45 m, while the former Akan Town's profile gives 38 m. The lake was listed as a Ramsar site in 2005³⁹²⁹.
• Other natural monuments: Harutori Lake (春採湖), in the city, is a national natural monument as a habitat of the red crucian carp (hibuna). City-designated monuments include sandstone dikes and the tussock sedge mounds called yachibōzu (谷地坊主)³¹.

Climate. At the Kushiro weather station, the 1991–2020 normals are an annual mean of 6.7 °C, a January mean of −4.8 °C and an August mean of 18.2 °C, with average August highs of only 21.5 °C⁴⁰. Summer brings sea fog: July averages about 16 fog days, and the year about 97⁴⁰. Winters are dry and sunny. Annual sunshine is 1,957.6 hours, snowfall totals only 127 cm, and the deepest snow averages 34 cm⁴⁰. The record high is 33.5 °C (31 July 2022) and the record low is −28.3 °C (28 January 1922)⁴¹. The city says inland areas can pass 30 °C in summer while the coast seldom reaches 25 °C¹.

• Fisheries: in 2025 Kushiro Port landed 130,577 t, worth ¥9.44 billion. That made it second in Japan by volume and 16th by value²³. Purse-seine fishing brought in 105,486 t. The saury (sanma) catch recovered to 1,939 t from 274 t the year before²³. In 2024 sardines made up more than 80% of the catch. They are used for fishmeal (for fertilizer and fish feed), sold fresh or canned. Pollock (for surimi and roe) and Pacific cod are also important². The city also stocks and farms shishamo smelt, sailfin sandfish and sea urchins³².
• Port and logistics: Kushiro Port opened in 1899 and was named a Major Port in 1951⁴². In 2011 the government chose it as an International Bulk Strategic Port for grain. Eastern Hokkaido keeps about half of Japan's dairy cows, and Kushiro is the nearest grain-import port to North America. Deep-water berths for large bulk ships were finished in 2018, the first of their kind in Japan⁴². A container route to Busan began in 2002⁴².
• Coal, paper and manufacturing: the city's official profile lists large food and pharmaceutical plants, paper mills and "the only operating colliery in Japan" as its industrial core¹. Nippon Paper's Kushiro mill, open since 1920, closed in 2021³⁶. Onbetsu attracted plants such as the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Factory and Otsuka Foods after its coal mine closed⁷.
• Farming and forestry: dairy is the main farm business, and the city also has large forests¹. Akan brands include Akan Malt Beef (阿寒モルト牛) and Akan Pork (阿寒ポーク)⁴³.
• Tourism: 4,450,090 visitors came in FY2025, down 2.4%. Overnight stays totalled 1,295,367⁴⁴. The Akan area drew 1,118,857 visitors. Visitors from outside Hokkaido rose 3.1%, helped by the new expressway section and more flights. Foreign overnight stays grew 4.8% to about 154,000, led by Taiwan (70,652)⁴⁴. The total is still 16% below FY2018 (5.30 million)⁴⁴.
• Furusato nozei: FY2025 donations reached 115,854 gifts worth ¥2.45 billion⁴⁵.
• Population trend: the population fell 5.5% between the 2015 and 2020 censuses and 8.3% between 2020 and 2025⁸⁹. In 2020 Obihiro overtook Kushiro on the resident register, and Kushiro fell to sixth place in Hokkaido³⁶.

Traditions and performing arts. In 1940, descendants of the Tottori settlers first dedicated the Kushiro Tottori Kirin Shishimai (釧路鳥取きりん獅子舞), a lion dance from the Inaba region of Tottori, at Tottori Shrine. It was designated a Hokkaido intangible folk cultural property in 2020³¹⁵⁸. The city also keeps Kinooka Kagura (紀ノ丘神楽) shrine dance and an Enkū Buddhist statue that is a Hokkaido cultural property³¹. Ishikawa Takuboku's stay is remembered each winter with the Takuboku Yukiakari (啄木・雪あかりの町・くしろ) ice-candle event near the Kōbunkan (港文館)⁵⁶¹³.

Shrines. Itsukushima Shrine dates from 1805²⁷. Tottori Shrine (鳥取神社), the shrine of the former Tottori Village, moved into a newly built shrine hall there in 1899¹³.

Museums. Kushiro City Museum (釧路市立博物館) is at Shunkodai 1-7. It opens 9:30–17:00, is closed Mondays, and costs ¥480 for adults⁵⁹. The fisheries museum Marine Topos Kushiro (マリン・トポスくしろ) is on the 3rd floor of the Kushiro Fisheries Center, and a 5th-floor deck there looks over the landing quay².

• Place names and history: the city takes its name from the Ainu Kusuri²⁸. In 1853 the Kusuri trading post counted 1,298 Ainu residents²⁷. In 1885, 137 Ainu from Moshiriya in Kushiro were relocated to Setsuri, in what is now Tsurui Village²⁹. The city chronology gives 138⁶.
• Chashi forts: the Moshiriya chashi and the Harutori-Charanke chashi are national historic sites, listed together as the Kushiro River chashi sites³¹.
• Akan Ainu Kotan: the village grew after Maeda Mitsuko, head of the Maeda Ippoen estate, provided her private land free of charge so that Ainu from across Hokkaido could settle and make a living there⁶⁰. It has craft shops, restaurants, a museum and galleries⁶⁰.
• Ikor theater: Akan Ainu Theater Ikor (opened April 2012) stages traditional dance. Ainu traditional dance is a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (1984)¹⁷³¹. From May to October there are shows at 11:00, 13:30 and 20:00, and in winter at 20:00 only. Shows last 30 minutes and cost ¥1,500 for adults, with no booking needed⁶¹. The theater also stages the production Lost Kamuy (阿寒ユーカラ ロストカムイ)²².
• Living traditions: besides the Marimo Festival and the Kapachep Nomi kokanee rite at Lake Akan⁵⁶, the Kushiro Ainu Association rebuilt its Harutori Seikatsukan community center in 2023³⁶.
• Onbetsu: Onbetsu has a legend of the Korpokkur, the little people under the butterbur leaves. The city thinks it was set around Muri (霧里)⁵⁴.

• Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada: sister city, 9 September 1965¹
• Kholmsk, Sakhalin, Russia: sister city, 27 August 1975¹
• Port of Seward, Alaska, USA: sister port, 1982. Port of New Orleans, USA: sister port, 1984¹
• Hunter Estuary Wetlands, Australia: sister wetland, 1994¹
• Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia: port-town friendship city, 1998¹
• Yuzawa (Akita) and Tottori (Tottori): sister cities, 4 October 1963¹
• Okayama (Okayama): tourism exchange city, 1979¹
• Izumi (Kagoshima), 1989; Tsuru (Yamanashi), 1992; Naka (Tokushima), 2006; Matsushige (Tokushima), 2023: friendship cities¹

• Akira Ifukube (伊福部昭): composer of the Godzilla score and creator of the monster's roar, born in Kushiro on 31 May 1914⁷².
• Sakuragi Shino (桜木紫乃): Kushiro-born novelist. She won the 149th Naoki Prize for Hotel Royal, set at her family's hotel overlooking the marsh⁷³.
• Obata Yuki (小畑友紀): Kushiro-born manga artist. Her Bokura ga Ita, set in Kushiro, was filmed in 2012⁷³.
• Ishikawa Takuboku (石川啄木): poet. He was not born here, but he worked for the Kushiro Shimbun for 76 days in 1908¹³.
• Maeda Masana (前田正名): acquired the land around Lake Akan in 1906. His family estate, Maeda Ippoen, went on to protect the lake's forests²⁹.