Obihiro 帯広市

The name comes from the Ainu name for the Obihiro River, o-pere-perke-p (オペㇾペㇾケㇷ゚). The city translates it as "the place where the river mouth splits into many branches." Over time it was pronounced Oberiberi (オベリベリ), and it then became Obihiro⁹.

• Where the branches were: The Riwka Ainu culture centre says the river once split into many channels where it met the Tokachi River²⁵. Wikipedia's article on the Obihiro River says the channels split just before the river joins the Satsunai River (札内川)²⁶.
• The characters: The first sounds were written 帯 (obi), and 広 (hiro, "wide") was chosen for the breadth of the Tokachi Plain¹.
• Another reading: The place-name scholar Yamada Hidezō (山田秀三) noted that the same parts make up operkep, the Ainu word for a girl, literally "one split at the lower part." Doubling pere ("split") describes a river divided again and again¹.
• Older spellings: Records give Operiperikepu (オペリペリケプ), Obereberefu (オベレベレフ) and Oberiberi (オベリベリ)¹.

Other local names have Ainu roots too. The Ubai River (売買川) may come from uwekarip ("gathering place," for the fish that were caught) or from urekarip ("where the feet turned"). Tokachi Poroshiri-dake (十勝幌尻岳) comes from poro-sir, "big mountain"²⁵.

• About 20,000 to 9,000 years ago: The Centennial City Museum displays 20,000-year-old stone tools and what it calls Hokkaido's oldest pottery²⁷. The Yachiyo A Site (八千代A遺跡) is a large Jōmon village from about 9,000 years ago, one of the oldest in Hokkaido. It was excavated in 1985–88. Its 580 finds, including some of the oldest Jōmon animal-shaped clay figures, became a national Important Cultural Property on 31 October 2018²⁸.
• Ainu era: Ainu villages (kotan) lined the Tokachi River and its tributaries²⁹. From the 15th century there were conflicts with the Japanese (Wajin), and the Ainu were gradually drawn into a system controlled by the Matsumae domain and merchants. Their lives grew very hard as a result²⁹.
• Edo period: Early in the period, the Tokachi trading post (十勝場所) was set up to trade with the Ainu⁶. The Matsumae domain ran it for salmon and kelp³⁰. In 1800 Minagawa Shūdayū (皆川周太夫) explored the Tokachi River, and a count in 1808 found 40 settlements, 254 households and 1,034 people in the Tokachi post area⁶. The explorer Matsuura Takeshirō (松浦武四郎) passed along the Tokachi coast in 1845²⁹. His later survey records, including Tokachi Nisshi (十勝日誌), made the plain's fertile land widely known⁶.
• 1869: Ezo was renamed Hokkaido. Tokachi Province was created with seven districts, and Shimo-Obihiro Village became part of Kasai District⁶.
• 1882–1883 (Banseisha): The Banseisha (晩成社) settlement company formed in Izu, Shizuoka. Its leaders Yoda Benzō (依田勉三) and Suzuki Jūtarō (鈴木銃太郎) chose Oberiberi as their site, and in 1883 Yoda led 27 settlers there from Matsuzaki⁶. Most of Hokkaido was settled by tondenhei (屯田兵) soldier-farmers under state direction, but Obihiro was opened by this private company. Settlers from Toyama, Gifu and other prefectures followed⁶³⁰.
• 1885: The government moved Ainu from the surrounding area to 12 sites, including Fushiko (伏古) in Obihiro, to teach them farming. The scheme failed²⁹.
• 1890s: In 1893 a grid of lots based on American colonial land surveys was laid out. It became the basis of today's street plan⁶. The Tokachi branch of the Hokkaido prison opened in 1895⁶, and its convicts built roads, schools, government offices and courthouses³⁰.
• 1902–1907: Shimo-Obihiro and eight other villages were combined as Obihiro Town⁷. The railway from Kushiro reached Obihiro in 1905, and the line to Asahikawa opened in 1907. Obihiro became the market town for Tokachi's farm produce⁷⁶.
• 1914–1920s: During the First World War, beans shipped out through Otaru brought Tokachi a "bean boom"⁷. Hokkaido Seitō (北海道製糖) was founded in 1919, and its sugar factory started work in 1920. The Tokachi Railway company followed in 1923, and a line to Shihoro in 1925⁶. Grain merchants moved in from Asahikawa and Kushiro, and their shops formed the core of today's town centre⁷.
• 1933: Obihiro became Hokkaido's seventh city⁷. Butadon was invented the same year¹³.
• 1941–1953: The Obihiro Higher Veterinary School opened in 1941 and became Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (帯広畜産大学) in 1949⁸³¹. In 1944 the Army's 1st Air Division and 7th Division were moved to Obihiro, and the city was bombed in 1945⁶. After the war, land reform turned many tenant farmers into owner-farmers, and beet growing and dairy farming, which had spread since the sugar boom that followed the First World War, became mainstays of Tokachi farming. People arriving from Japan's ruined cities made the population grow quickly⁸. City-run horse racing began in 1953⁶.
• 1957: Kawanishi and Taishō villages merged into Obihiro, bringing large areas of farmland and forest. The population passed 100,000 the following year⁸.
• 1959–1987: In 1959 Obihiro adopted a comprehensive city plan, ten years before national law required one³². The first ice festival was held and the old Obihiro Airport opened in 1964⁶. The Kōfuku ticket boom began in 1973²². In 1975 the city began the Obihiro no Mori forest⁶, where citizens have planted about 230,000 trees³². The population reached 150,000 in 1978⁶. The new airport and the JNR Sekishō Line opened in 1981, and the Centennial City Museum opened in 1982, the city's centenary⁶. The Hiroo and Shihoro lines closed in 1987¹.
• 1996–2013: The railway through the centre was raised onto a viaduct in 1996. The city took over ban'ei racing alone in 2007. In 2009 the Meiji Hokkaido-Tokachi Oval (明治北海道十勝オーバル), Japan's second indoor speed-skating rink, opened. In 2011 the Dōtō Expressway was completed to Sapporo, and Obihiro was designated part of the Hokkaido Food Complex International Strategic Comprehensive Special Zone (北海道フード・コンプレックス国際戦略総合特区). In 2013 Obihiro and the 18 Tokachi towns and villages became Japan's first "Biomass Industry City"⁶.
• 2024–2026: Part of the city became part of the new Hidaka-sanmyaku Erimo Tokachi National Park in 2024⁴. A record 104 cm of snow fell in one day on 4 February 2025, and a record-equalling 38.8 °C was reached on 24 July 2025³³. Aero K began flights to Cheongju and Incheon in South Korea in 2025⁶. An accommodation tax took effect on 1 April 2026³⁴. Ueno Yōsuke (上野庸介) became the tenth mayor on 21 April 2026⁶.

• Setting: Obihiro lies near the centre of the Tokachi Plain. The Daisetsu mountains (大雪山系) close it in to the north and the Hidaka Mountains (日高山脈) to the west. The built-up area is in the north of the city, and large farms stretch away to the south⁶. About 60% of the city is flat land, and about half of that is farmland⁴.
• Rivers: The Tokachi River (十勝川), whose basin is the sixth largest in Japan, flows past the city. City tap water is drawn from under the Satsunai River⁴⁶. The national water-quality surveys for 2023 and 2024 rated the Satsunai among the cleanest rivers in Japan⁶.
• Mountains: The southwest of the city reaches into the northern Hidaka Mountains. Tokachi Poroshiri-dake (1,846 m) is a landmark of the plain, with sheer ridges and cirques. It is part of the national Place of Scenic Beauty "Pirika Noka"³⁵. Wikipedia's list of the city's main peaks is headed by "1967-hō" (1967峰, 1,967 m) and Tottabetsu-dake (戸蔦別岳, 1,959 m), followed by Pipairo-dake (ピパイロ岳, 1,917 m), Kita-Tottabetsu-dake (北戸蔦別岳, 1,912 m), Esaoman-Tottabetsu-dake (エサオマントッタベツ岳, 1,902 m) and Satsunai-dake (札内岳, 1,895 m)¹.
• Protected areas: In 2024 part of the city was included in Hidaka-sanmyaku Erimo Tokachi National Park (日高山脈襟裳十勝国立公園)⁴, Japan's 35th national park⁶. The gorge of Iwanai Sengyō (岩内仙峡) lies in its foothills³⁶.
• Climate: The climate is cool, with little rain and more clear days than almost anywhere else in Japan. Summer highs pass 30 °C and winter lows fall to around −20 °C⁶. Normals for 1991–2020 at the Obihiro station are 7.2 °C for the year and −6.9 °C for January, with an average January low of −13.0 °C. August averages 20.3 °C, with an average high of 25.4 °C. The station records 919.7 mm of precipitation, 198 cm of snowfall and 2,020 hours of sunshine a year³⁷. The long spells of clear weather in autumn and winter are called Tokachi-bare (十勝晴れ)⁶.
• Extremes: The highest temperature on record is 38.8 °C, on 26 May 2019 and again on 24 July 2025. The lowest is −38.2 °C, on 26 January 1902. The deepest snow was 177 cm, on 17 March 1970. The most snow in a single day was 104 cm, on 4 February 2025³³.

• Farming: Farming is the base of the economy. Farms rotate wheat, beans, sugar beet and potatoes, alongside dairy and beef cattle²¹. The 2025 farm census counted 587 farms, down from 613 in 2020. Together they work 21,897 ha, an average of 37.3 ha each²¹. In 2025 wheat covered 6,184 ha, beans 4,017 ha, potatoes 3,523 ha, sugar beet 2,620 ha, feed crops 2,238 ha and vegetables 1,973 ha. Herds numbered 31,167 beef cattle, 8,413 dairy cattle, 3,310 pigs, 484 horses and 446 sheep. Farm output was an estimated ¥35.5 billion: ¥22.7 billion from crops and ¥12.8 billion from livestock. All of Tokachi's farm co-ops together handled ¥384.6 billion²¹.
• Food Valley Tokachi (フードバレーとかち): Under this banner, Obihiro leads all 19 Tokachi municipalities in joining farming, local processing, distribution and sales into one "Tokachi-style food system," and in selling Tokachi products in Japan and abroad⁶³⁸.
• Jobs and commerce: In 2020, 72.7% of workers were in services and other tertiary industries, 17.0% in manufacturing and construction, and 4.9% in primary industries (4.8% in farming and forestry). Obihiro is the commercial centre of eastern Hokkaido. In 2021 its 1,793 wholesale and retail businesses sold goods worth ¥706.4 billion⁶.
• Companies and institutions: Rokkatei¹⁷ and Ryugetsu are the best known. Ryugetsu's registered head office is still in Obihiro, but the company moved its headquarters to Sweetpia Garden in Otofuke in 2001¹⁸¹⁹. Fujimori Shōkai (藤森商会) runs the Indian curry chain³⁹. Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine is Japan's only national university devoted to livestock science³¹. The ban'ei racing account is the largest of the city's special accounts, with a fiscal-2026 budget of ¥55.5 billion⁶.
• Tourism: Hokkaido counted 2,341,700 visitors to Obihiro in fiscal 2025, up 1.4%. They included 918,800 overnight guests, who stayed 1,198,400 nights in all. August was the busiest month, with 570,700 visitors⁴⁰. Foreign overnight guests numbered 38,830, up 44.7%. South Korea sent the most (17,065), followed by Taiwan (6,835) and mainland China (4,770)⁴⁰. The city says it is mostly a place people pass through between central and eastern Hokkaido, that visits are uneven across the seasons, and that it attracts few foreign visitors. It uses the new accommodation tax to address these problems⁴¹. The Tokyo air route carried 644,287 passengers in fiscal 2024⁴².
• Population: The census population peaked at 173,030 in 2000 and fell to 166,536 in 2020, when 29.7% of residents were 65 or older⁶. The resident register counted 158,595 in August 2026³. The city credits the Food Valley Tokachi programme for keeping the region's decline relatively gradual⁶.

Souvenirs from across Tokachi are sold at two places in the Obihiro Station building (ESTA). The Tokachi Bussan Center (とかち物産センター) is on the second floor of the east building, open 9:00–18:00. Tokachi Shoku Monogatari (とかち食物語) is in the west building, open 8:30–19:00¹⁴. The farm market at Tokachimura, beside the racecourse, sells fresh produce and local goods⁴⁸.

Performing arts: The Obihiro Kamuy Tō Upopo Preservation Society (帯広カムイトウウポポ保存会) keeps Ainu traditional dance alive. The dance was designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1984 (see Ainu heritage)⁵⁹. The Heigen Taiko drum festival is held on the second day of the Heigen Matsuri⁵².

Shrines: Obihiro Shrine (帯廣神社) is at Higashi 3-jō Minami 2-chōme and enshrines the three "pioneer gods." It was the model for the shrine in the manga Silver Spoon (銀の匙), and it advertises the Hokkaido long-tailed tits (シマエナガ) that visit its grounds⁵⁴.

Heritage buildings: The former Futaba Kindergarten (旧双葉幼稚園園舎), at Higashi 4-jō Minami 10-chōme 9, was built in 1922. Its octagonal domed playroom is surrounded by four classrooms. It became a national Important Cultural Property in 2017⁶⁰. The brick oil store of the Tokachi prison, built in 1900 and now in Midorigaoka Park, is the oldest surviving building in the city⁶¹.

Many Ainu kotan once lined the Tokachi River and its tributaries. Obihiro remains an active centre of Ainu culture, with Ainu-language classes, culture classes and other preservation work²⁹.

• History: In 1885 the authorities moved Ainu from the area to 12 sites, including Fushiko (伏古) in Obihiro and Otofuke, to teach them farming. The policy failed, and the 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act began a period of forced assimilation²⁹. In 1927 the Tokachi Kyokumeisha (十勝旭明社), a forerunner of today's Hokkaido Ainu Association, was founded in Obihiro. Fushine Kōzō (伏根弘三) of Obihiro was one of the local leaders of that time²⁹.
• Dance: Ainu song and dance groups formed from the 1950s. In 1964 Obihiro's group became the Obihiro Kamuy Tō Upopo Preservation Society²⁹. The name means "songs of the gods' lake" (kamuy "god," to "lake," upopo "song"). The society keeps more than 30 songs and dances. The best known is the battaki upopo (バッタキウポポ, grasshopper dance), which recalls the locust plagues of the Meiji settlement years. Ainu traditional dance became a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1984 and was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2009⁵⁹. The usual Ainu greeting in Obihiro is ishorore (イショロレー), not the better-known irankarapte. Visitors can book performances and hands-on sessions through the city's tourism section⁵⁹.
• Riwka (リウカ): The Ainu Culture Information Centre opened in January 2006 inside the Centennial City Museum. Riwka means "bridge." It lends books, DVDs and recordings and grew out of the city's Ainu policy plans of 1995 and 2005⁶². The museum's galleries show Tokachi Ainu tools and a nusa altar with inaw arranged in the Tokachi style²⁷. With national Ainu-policy funding, the city has made the Midorigaoka Park area an "Ainu culture contact zone." A Japanese–English leaflet is available at the park's facilities⁶³.
• Sacred landscape: In 2012 Tokachi Poroshiri-dake was added to the national Place of Scenic Beauty "Pirika Noka," which means "beautiful shapes" in Ainu. The mountain was revered as the home of the god Poroshiri-kamuy³⁵. People believed a "god's pond," Kamuy-tō (カムイトー), lay near the summit²⁵.
• People: The singer and mukkuri (mouth harp) player Anto Umeko (安東ウメ子, 1932–2004) was born in the Fushiko kotan. She taught at the Obihiro Ainu language class from 1993 and recorded with the tonkori player OKI⁶⁴.

Domestic

• Oita, Oita Prefecture (大分県大分市): since 26 October 1966, now a "tourism and culture" partnership. It began as an "airport sister city" tie, because the Obihiro–Tokyo and Tokyo–Oita air routes opened on the same day. Elementary school pupils exchange homestay visits in summer and winter⁸⁸.
• Matsuzaki, Shizuoka Prefecture (静岡県松崎町): since 20 May 1978, a "pioneering sister town." Matsuzaki is the home town of Obihiro's pioneer founder, Yoda Benzō. The two towns exchange seasonal produce for schools and care homes: citrus from Matsuzaki, and asparagus and potatoes from Obihiro⁸⁸.
• Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture (徳島県徳島市): since 7 August 1982, an "industry and culture" partnership. Obihiro pupils visit in summer, and Tokushima pupils come in December for snow rafting, sledding and skating⁸⁸.

International

• Seward, Alaska, USA: since 27 March 1968. The tie began when Seward sought help rebuilding after the 1964 earthquake. High-school exchanges have run since 1973⁸⁹.
• Chaoyang, Liaoning, China (朝陽市): a friendship city since 17 November 2000. Exchanges began with a delegation in 1985, and high-school exchanges have run since fiscal 2002⁸⁹.
• Madison, Wisconsin, USA: since 25 October 2006. The tie grew out of farm exchanges and the city's study of the "Madison Model" of community mental-health care⁸⁹.
• Friendship station: Kōfuku Station and Hexing Station, Taiwan, since 22 October 2016²².

• Yoda Benzō (依田勉三): leader of the Banseisha pioneers who settled Obihiro in 1883. He came from Matsuzaki, Shizuoka⁶⁸⁸.
• Shimizu Hiroyasu (清水宏保): speed skater, born in Obihiro in 1974. At the 1998 Nagano Olympics he won gold in the 500 m and bronze in the 1,000 m, and he took silver in the 500 m at Salt Lake City in 2002⁹⁰.
• Ikezawa Natsuki (池澤夏樹): novelist, born in Obihiro in 1945, where his parents had been evacuated during the war. He won the 98th Akutagawa Prize, for 1987, with Still Life⁹¹.
• Nakajō Fumiko (中城ふみ子, 1922–1954): tanka poet born in Obihiro. She is regarded, with Terayama Shūji, as a starting point of modern tanka⁹². A stone inscribed with her poetry stands in Midorigaoka Park⁶¹.
• Azumi Shin'ichirō (安住紳一郎): TBS announcer. He was born in Obihiro, grew up in neighbouring Memuro and attended Obihiro Hakuyō High School⁹³.
• Anto Umeko (安東ウメ子, 1932–2004): Ainu singer and mukkuri player from the Fushiko kotan⁶⁴.