Iburi 胆振総合振興局

The 2020 Census figures above total 382,354.¹ Each municipality's file gives its latest resident-register figure.

• Shape and neighbors: Iburi lies in the south-center of Hokkaido. It measures 152 km from east to west and 98 km from north to south, and about 218 km of its southern edge is Pacific coastline. Hidaka lies to the east, Oshima to the west, and Shiribeshi, Ishikari, Sorachi and Kamikawa to the north.¹

• West and East Iburi: The subprefecture is usually split in two. West Iburi (西いぶり) is Muroran, Noboribetsu, Date, Toyoura, Sobetsu and Toyako. East Iburi (東いぶり) is Tomakomai, Shiraoi, Abira, Atsuma and Mukawa. Shiraoi also belongs to West Iburi's joint tourism council.¹⁵

• The east: A flat, sandy coast backs onto the Yūfutsu Plain, which opens north into the Ishikari lowland. Mt. Tarumae and Lake Shikotsu rise to the west of the plain, and rolling hills to the east lead up to the Hidaka Mountains.¹

• The west: A varied coast climbs through hills to mountains. Lake Toya and Mt. Usu sit near the middle, and Mt. Horohoro, Mt. Orofure and Mt. Washibetsu stand in a north–south line to their east.¹

• Two seas: The western coast faces Funka Bay (噴火湾, also called Uchiura Bay), where scallops are farmed. The eastern coast faces the open Pacific, where walleye pollock and hokki clams are the main catch.¹⁶

• Volcanoes: Lake Toya fills a caldera left by a huge eruption about 110,000 years ago. Mt. Usu, on its south shore, has erupted at least nine times since 1663, four of them in the 20th century (1910, 1943–45, 1977–78 and 2000). The Toya Caldera and Usu Volcano UNESCO Global Geopark covers about 1,064 km².¹⁷ Showa-shinzan began to rise after earthquakes in December 1943 and reached a peak of 407 m in September 1945, when its activity stopped. It is a Special Natural Monument; see Sobetsu for its height today. The lava dome of Mt. Tarumae formed in its 1909 eruption and is a Hokkaido Natural Monument.¹⁸

• National park: Shikotsu-Tōya National Park (支笏洞爺国立公園) was designated on 16 May 1949 and covers 99,473 ha across Ishikari, Shiribeshi and Iburi. In 2024 it had about 9.02 million visits, the most of any national park in Hokkaido and the 10th-most of Japan's 35. About 6.8 million of those visits were in Iburi, most of them at Noboribetsu and Toyako.¹⁹

• Wetlands and forest: Lake Utonai in Tomakomai is a national wildlife protection area and a Ramsar wetland. The Bibi River basin and the coast around Chikyū Misaki are also noted for their nature.¹ Forest covers 252,329 ha, or 68.2% of the land.²⁰

• Climate: The climate is maritime. Some coasts get sea fog and some areas are cool, but by Hokkaido standards Iburi is mild. Spring comes early, summers are not muggy, and outside the mountains winters are fairly warm with little snow.¹ The 1991–2020 normals show how much the coast and the interior differ:

  • Muroran: annual mean 8.9 °C, 1,188.9 mm of precipitation and 157 cm of snowfall a year²¹
  • Tomakomai: annual mean 7.9 °C, 1,239.2 mm of precipitation and 145 cm of snowfall²²
  • Inland Noboribetsu (the Satsunai station): annual mean 7.4 °C, 1,811.2 mm of precipitation and 454 cm of snowfall²³
  • Hobetsu, in inland Mukawa, recorded −30.3 °C on 17 February 1978.²⁴

  2025 was a warm year: Muroran averaged 10.8 °C and Tomakomai 9.7 °C.¹

• Wildlife: Ezo sika deer numbers are rising in the central region that includes Iburi. Deer-related traffic accidents in Iburi rose from 193 in 2011 to 845 in 2024, and deer damage to farms and forests reached ¥497 million in 2024.¹⁹

• Jōmon period: Three of the 17 sites in the World Heritage "Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan", inscribed on 27 July 2021, are in Iburi. They are the Kitakogane shell mound in Date and the Irie and Takasago shell mounds in Toyako.²⁵ The Shizukawa site in Tomakomai held the first Jōmon moated enclosure found in Japan and became a National Historic Site in 1987. A Final Jōmon clay figurine from the Wanishi site in Muroran is a national Important Cultural Property held by the Tokyo National Museum.¹⁸
• The name: According to tradition, in the reign of Empress Saimei (7th century) Abe no Omi (阿倍臣) entertained the Emishi of "Iburisae" (胆振鉏). The province name recalls this story. Where Iburisae was has never been settled.⁹
• Trading posts and eruptions: Under the Matsumae domain the coast was divided into trading posts (basho) where retainers of the Matsumae domain traded with the Ainu. They included Abuta, Usu, Mororan, Etomo, Horobetsu, Ayoro, Shiraoi and Yūfutsu. Mt. Usu erupted in 1663, 1769, 1822 and 1853. The pyroclastic flows of 1822 wiped out the settlement at Abuta, with many deaths. Mt. Tarumae erupted in 1667, 1739 and 1804.⁹
• Shogunate rule and coastal defense: The shogunate took direct control of eastern Ezo in 1799. In 1800 a party of Hachiōji Sennin Dōshin, samurai-farmers from Hachiōji near Edo, settled and laid the foundations of Tomakomai.⁹ In 1804 the shogunate built Usu Zenkōji in Date as one of the three government temples of Ezo.¹⁸ From 1855 the Nanbu domain guarded the coast from Horobetsu westward from a camp at Muroran, and the Sendai domain guarded the coast from Shiraoi eastward from a camp at Shiraoi.⁹ Both camp sites are National Historic Sites.¹⁸
• Iburi Province (1869): The province was created on the 15th day of the 8th month of 1869 (20 September 1869). It had eight districts (Yamakoshi, Abuta, Usu, Muroran, Horobetsu, Shiraoi, Yūfutsu and Chitose) and 44 villages. From 1869 to 1871 the new government handed the districts to domains and samurai to settle. Usu, Muroran and Horobetsu, and later Abuta, went to retainers of the former Sendai domain, while Shiraoi went to the Ichinoseki domain and Yūfutsu and Chitose to the Kōchi domain. The 1872 count found 6,251 people.⁹ The old province was larger than today's subprefecture. It also took in Oshamambe and part of Yakumo (now Oshima), the towns and villages of Abuta District now in Shiribeshi, Chitose and Eniwa (now Ishikari), and Shimukappu (now Kamikawa).⁹
• Samurai settlers: Three leading houses of the defeated Sendai domain moved their retainers here after the Boshin War. Date Kunishige of Watari led the migration to Usu from 1870, and about 2,700 people arrived over the next ten or so years. Local Ainu helped them through early food shortages, and the settlement became today's Date.¹¹ In 1869 Katakura Kuninori, lord of Shiroishi Castle, was ordered to govern Horobetsu District, today's Noboribetsu.²⁶ Retainers of the Ishikawa house of Kakuda began clearing land at Muroran.²⁷
• Port, rail and industry: In 1872 a customs office opened at Muroran, and work began on the Sapporo Hondō road linking Hakodate, Mori, Muroran and Sapporo. A railway from the Sorachi coalfields at Iwamizawa then made Muroran a coal port.²⁸ Japan Steel Works was founded in 1907 and began building its Muroran plant, and the Wanishi ironworks started up in 1909.²⁷ Oji Paper opened its Tomakomai mill in 1910.²⁹ The story of coal, steel, ports and railways that ties Muroran to Sorachi and Otaru was recognized as the "Tanteko" (炭鉄港) Japan Heritage on 20 May 2019.³⁰
• The subprefecture: The Muroran Subprefecture (室蘭支庁) was set up in 1897. Its northern Abuta villages moved to what is now Shiribeshi in 1899 and 1910, and Shimukappu moved to Kamikawa in 1906. It was renamed the Iburi Subprefecture (胆振支庁) on 17 August 1922.⁸ Muroran had become a city on 1 August that year.²⁸
• 20th century: Showa-shinzan rose in 1943–45.¹⁸ Shikotsu-Tōya National Park was designated in 1949.¹⁹ Work on Tomakomai's industrial port began in 1951, and the first ship entered in 1963.²⁹ It is known as the world's first port dug out of dry land.¹⁰ Iburi's population peaked at 476,929 in the 1980 Census. It fell for the first time in the 1985 Census, as the key steel and shipbuilding companies cut their workforces.¹
• 2000 eruption: Mt. Usu erupted at its foot, near Nishiyama and Konpira, in 2000. The warning signs were caught early and residents had already left, so the eruption killed no one directly.¹⁷
• 2006 mergers: The village of Ōtaki joined Date on 1 March 2006. On 27 March, Abuta and Tōya merged as Toyako, Hayakita and Oiwake as Abira, and Mukawa and Hobetsu as Mukawa. These mergers removed the last villages in Iburi.⁸
• 2008–2009: Leaders met for the 34th G8 summit at Toyako on 7–9 July 2008.¹⁴ In August 2009 the Toya–Usu area was certified as a Global Geopark, which the subprefecture's profile of Sobetsu calls Japan's first.³ Itoigawa and the Shimabara Peninsula were certified at the same meeting, so the three share that distinction. The global geopark network became an official UNESCO programme in November 2015.³¹
• The 2010 reorganization: On 1 April 2010 Hokkaido replaced its 14 subprefectures (支庁) with 9 general subprefectural bureaus (総合振興局) and 5 subprefectural bureaus (振興局).³² The Iburi Subprefecture became the Iburi General Subprefectural Bureau (胆振総合振興局), with the same territory as before.¹⁵ The ordinance passed in June 2008 had planned to call it the "Nittan (Hidaka–Iburi) General Subprefectural Bureau", with a Hidaka office under it.³²¹⁵ After objections to the "downgrade", the ordinance was amended in March 2009. Iburi kept its name, and the Hidaka Subprefectural Bureau got equal legal status. The Iburi bureau may still handle some wide-area work in neighboring Hidaka.¹⁵⁸
• 2017: The bureau formed a partnership with Iwate Prefecture's Coastal Regional Development Bureau on 19 June 2017, prompted by the opening of a Miyako–Muroran ferry.³
• 2018 earthquake: The Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake struck at 3:07 a.m. on 6 September 2018. It was magnitude 6.7 and 37 km deep, and it was the first quake in Hokkaido's records to reach intensity 7. Atsuma recorded 7, and Abira and Mukawa recorded 6-upper. As of 1 August 2025, 40 of the 44 deaths were in Iburi, 37 of them in Atsuma. In Iburi 368 homes were destroyed and 895 half-destroyed.¹²
• 2019–2026: Kamuysaurus japonicus, the dinosaur found at Hobetsu, was named as a new genus and species in September 2019.³³ Upopoy opened in Shiraoi on 12 July 2020.³⁴ The Jōmon sites became World Heritage in 2021.²⁵ The Hobetsu Dinosaur Museum reopened on 25 April 2026 and passed 50,000 visitors on 26 July.³⁵ On 27 August 2026 heavy rain washed out the Muroran Main Line between Shizukari Station, in Oshamambe (Oshima),³⁶ and Koboro Station, in Toyoura.³³⁷ Service resumed on 10 September with slow running on repaired sections.³⁷

• Structure: At the 2020 Census, Iburi had 169,709 workers: 5.0% in primary industry, 23.6% in secondary industry and 68.8% in services. The Hokkaido averages were 6.7%, 16.5% and 74.1%. Manufacturing employed 13.4% of Iburi's workers, against 7.9% across Hokkaido. The region's jobs-to-applicants ratio has stayed above the Hokkaido average.¹
• Manufacturing: Iburi and Ishikari are the two centers of Hokkaido's manufacturing. Iburi's factories shipped about ¥2.09 trillion of goods, 30.1% of Hokkaido's total, in the 2025 Economic Structure Survey. Tomakomai, at about ¥1.45 trillion, was first among Hokkaido's municipalities, and Muroran, at about ¥491 billion, was third. In 2021, four industries made up 78.5% of Iburi's shipments: petroleum and coal products, iron and steel, transport equipment, and pulp and paper. Iburi's shares of Hokkaido's output in those industries were 96.2%, 83.5%, 74.6% and 38.5%.²
  • Muroran has steel: Nippon Steel and Japan Steel Works.²
  • Tomakomai has auto parts (Toyota Motor Hokkaido, Aisin Hokkaido, Dynax) and basic materials (Oji Paper, Idemitsu).²
• Energy: Idemitsu's Hokkaido Refinery in Tomakomai (1973, 140,000 barrels a day) is the only oil refinery in Hokkaido. The Tomato-Atsuma power station (1.65 GW) is Hokkaido's largest thermal plant. National and private oil-stockpile bases sit at Tomakomai and Atsuma. The oil-fired Date power station (700 MW) was suspended at the end of March 2024.³⁸
  • Off Tomakomai, a demonstration project stored 300,000 t of CO₂ under the seabed between 2012 and 2020, the first in Japan. A larger commercial storage project, aiming to start in 2030, began test drilling in December 2025.³⁸
  • Muroran is pushing to become a base for offshore wind. Its industry council for this was founded in January 2020, and a West Iburi green-transformation (GX) council followed in November 2025.³⁸
• Ports and trade: Iburi has three ports: Muroran and Tomakomai, which are International Hub Ports, and the local port of Shiraoi. In 2024 they handled 114.2 million t of cargo, 62.0% of Hokkaido's total. Tomakomai alone handled 100.0 million t (54.3%). Muroran and Tomakomai together handled ¥1.53 trillion of foreign trade, 72.5% of Hokkaido's.³⁹ About half of Hokkaido's sea freight passes through Tomakomai.¹⁰ Tomakomai is also Hokkaido's main timber-import port. In FY2024 it received 59.7% of the island's imported logs, 99.7% of its sawn timber and all of its wood chips.²⁰
• Farming: Farm output was ¥83.0 billion in 2024, 5.6% of Hokkaido's. East Iburi, from Shiraoi eastward, centers on rice, with greenhouse and field vegetables, wheat and soybeans, flowers, haskap, dairy, wagyu and racehorses. West Iburi, from Noboribetsu westward, grows vegetables, high-grade beans, apples and other fruit, and rice, and also has dairy and livestock farms.⁴⁰ Poultry is a strength: Iburi keeps 49.1% of Hokkaido's chickens. It also produces 28.4% of Hokkaido's lettuce and 21.6% of its broccoli, and keeps 17.8% of its beef cattle and 15.0% of its pigs. The 2025 farm census counted 3,390 farm workers, most commonly in their seventies.⁴⁰
• Fisheries: The 2024 catch was about 39,000 t, worth about ¥10.3 billion, roughly 4% of Hokkaido's catch by value. Walleye pollock, scallops and hokki clams made up 76% of the volume and 56% of the value. Matsukawa flounder and sea urchin fry are released to rebuild stocks. The Hokkaido Mariculture Fisheries Experiment Station (栽培水産試験場) in Muroran researches these methods.¹⁶

Regional brands and specialties

Five Great Heritages: The subprefecture promotes five themes as the "Iburi Five Great Heritages" (いぶり五大遺産):⁴¹⁴²

• the Toya Caldera and Usu Volcano Geopark
• Ainu culture
• the Jōmon sites
• Mukawa-ryū (Kamuysaurus)
• Tanteko, the coal–steel–port industrial heritage

Festival calendar (selected, from the subprefecture's 2026 list)⁴²

The subprefecture's calendar places the Date Musha Matsuri at the turn of July and August, and its profile of Date lists it under August.⁴²³ The 50th festival, in 2026, held its eve festival on 31 July and the main festival on 1 August.⁴³ Check Date for the current year's dates.

Samurai and industrial heritage: The Date Musha Matsuri and the Sendai-domain camp site in Shiraoi recall the region's samurai settlers (see History). The Tanteko story takes in Muroran's factory landscapes and the D51 320 steam locomotive shown at Abira's Michi-no-Eki.³⁰³

Ainu heritage

• Upopoy: The Cabinet decided in June 2014 to build the national "Symbolic Space for Ethnic Harmony" in Shiraoi. Upopoy opened to the public on 12 July 2020.³⁴ It brings together the National Ainu Museum, the National Ainu Park and a memorial facility.³
• Traditional dance: Ainu traditional dance (アイヌ古式舞踊) became a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property on 21 January 1984. Two Iburi groups are among its keepers:
  • the Shiraoi Folk Performing Arts Preservation Society, which performs 14 dances, including the bear-spirit-sending dance (iomante rimse) and the sword dance (emushi rimse)
  • the Mukawa Ainu Culture Preservation Society, best known for the fussa hero, a dance to drive away sickness¹⁸
• Pirikanoka: Two Iburi places are part of Pirikanoka (ピリカノカ, "beautiful form"), a national Place of Scenic Beauty for landscapes with Ainu place names. They are Kamui Chashi on Chatsu Point in Toyoura, designated on 7 February 2011, and the outer coast of the Etomo Peninsula in Muroran, designated on 24 January 2012.¹⁸
• Usu Zenkōji records: These are an Important Cultural Property. The shogunate's three Ezo temples also had preaching to the Ainu in view, so the temple's records matter for Ainu history as well as Buddhist history.¹⁸
• Chiri Yukie: Chiri Yukie (1903–1922) was born into an Ainu family in Noboribetsu. She transcribed and translated yukar, and her Ainu Shin'yōshū was published the year after her death.⁴⁴
• Place names: Most municipal names come from Ainu, including these:³
  • Muroran: mo-ruerani, "the foot of a small slope"
  • Tomakomai: to (marsh) + makomai
  • Noboribetsu: nupur-pet, "dark-colored river"
  • Shiraoi: siraw-o-i, "place with many horseflies"
  • Sobetsu: sō-pet, "river with a waterfall"
  • Atsuma: at-tomam, "the wetland over there"
  • Mukawa: mukka-pet, a river mouth closed by sand
• Living communities: The Hokkaido Ainu Association has local branches in nine of Iburi's 11 municipalities: Muroran, Mukawa, Toyako, Atsuma, Date, Shiraoi, Noboribetsu, Tomakomai and Toyoura.⁴⁵ For each town's sites, ceremonies and collections, see its file. Examples are Atsuma's dam-site excavations and Mukawa's shishamo kamuy-nomi.

• Visitor numbers: Iburi counted 16.71 million tourist visits in FY2025. That was 10.8% of Hokkaido's total and fourth among the 14 subprefectures. Overnight stays came to 2.97 million guest-nights (7.1%, fifth).⁴²
  • Noboribetsu led with 3.22 million visits, followed by Tomakomai (2.80 million), Shiraoi (2.19 million), Toyako (2.16 million), Sobetsu (1.77 million) and Muroran (1.66 million).⁴²
  • Foreign guest-nights reached 976,219, 9.4% of Hokkaido's and 19.0% more than in FY2019. Taiwan (342,906), South Korea (213,988) and mainland China (123,963) led.⁴²
• Hot springs: Noboribetsu Onsen has about 10,000 tonnes of hot water a day and nine spring types by the subprefecture's count; the resort's own count is given in Noboribetsu. Its Jigokudani is a Hokkaido Heritage site, and Karurusu Onsen was the first National Health Resort Hot Spring in Hokkaido.³ Other hot springs include:³
  • Tōyako Onsen, with its foot and hand baths, in Toyako
  • Kitayuzawa Onsen in Date's Ōtaki district, see Date
  • Kojohama Onsen and the rare "moor" springs of Shiraoi
• Volcanoes: Walk the 2000 crater trails at Nishiyama and Konpira in Toyako, and see Showa-shinzan and Mt. Usu from Sobetsu.³
• Ainu culture: Upopoy in Shiraoi.³⁴
• Jōmon sites: Kitakogane in Date and Irie–Takasago in Toyako.²⁵
• Coast and industry: In Muroran, see Chikyū Misaki, the factory night views and the 1,380 m Hakuchō Bridge, which opened on 13 June 1998 and is the largest suspension bridge in eastern Japan. Dolphin watching runs in season.³⁴⁶
• Wildlife and horses: Lake Utonai and Northern Horse Park are in Tomakomai.³
• Dinosaurs: The Hobetsu Dinosaur Museum in Mukawa.³⁵
• Wide-area tourism: A regional tourism council, the Hokkaido Noboribetsu–Tōya Wide-Area Tourism Zone Council (北海道登別洞爺広域観光圏協議会), promotes West Iburi as a whole. It was formed by the tourism associations of West Iburi, and Shiraoi also takes part.⁴²¹⁵

Suggested routes

1. Volcanoes, hot springs and Ainu culture (2–3 days from New Chitose Airport):
   • Start at Upopoy in Shiraoi.
   • Continue to Noboribetsu Onsen in Noboribetsu for Jigokudani and a night at the onsen. The airport bus to Noboribetsu Onsen takes about 1 h 15 min.³⁹
   • Cross to Sobetsu for Showa-shinzan and the Usu-zan Ropeway, with a stop at Michi-no-Eki Sobetsu Jōhōkan i.¹⁵⁴⁷
   • End at Tōyako Onsen in Toyako, where the Long-run Fireworks light the lake every night from late April to October.³¹³
2. The Funka Bay coast on Route 37 (1–2 days):
   • Start at Michi-no-Eki Mitara Muroran by Hakuchō Bridge in Muroran.
   • Continue to Date Rekishi no Mori in Date, close to the Date History and Culture Museum.
   • Stop at Abuta in Toyako for the sea-urchin bowl.
   • End at Toyoura in Toyoura for strawberry soft-serve. From there, hikers can take a local train to Koboro Station.⁴⁸
   • All four roadside stations are along National Route 37.^46495051 The road continues west into Oshamambe in Oshima.
3. East Iburi: wetlands, railways, haskap and dinosaurs (1–2 days):
   • Start at Michi-no-Eki Utonai-ko beside Lake Utonai in Tomakomai.
   • Head north to Abira D51 Station and its steam locomotive in Abira.
   • Go through Atsuma, which holds a haskap fair in June,⁴² and whose Hama-Atsuma beach, one of Hokkaido's leading surf spots, draws about 60,000 visitors a year.³
   • End in Mukawa with the Mukawa Shiki no Yakata hot spring and, inland at Hobetsu, the dinosaur museum.^52535435
   • Route 235 continues east into Hidaka.

Nine Michi-no-Eki are registered in Iburi. They are listed here from west to east.⁵⁵

Noboribetsu, Shiraoi and Atsuma have no Michi-no-Eki. Forest 276 Ōtaki, in Date's Ōtaki district, lost its registration on 31 January 2022.⁵⁵ Each of those municipality files suggests a nearby stop to use instead.

• Air: New Chitose Airport straddles Chitose and Tomakomai and is Hokkaido's main air gateway. It handled 23.97 million passengers in 2024.³⁹

• Rail: Three JR Hokkaido lines serve Iburi:³⁹

  • the Muroran Main Line, from Oshamambe to Iwamizawa
  • the Chitose Line, from Tomakomai to Sapporo
  • the Hidaka Main Line, from Tomakomai to Mukawa

  From Higashi-Muroran, trains take about 1 h 30 min to Sapporo, 2 h 20 min to Hakodate and 1 h 10 min to New Chitose Airport, changing at Minami-Chitose.³⁹ The Sekishō Line also meets the Muroran Line at Oiwake in Abira, where all Tokachi and some Ōzora limited expresses stop.⁵⁸

• Rail disruption in 2026: Heavy rain on 27 August 2026 washed out the Muroran Line between Shizukari and Koboro. Trains resumed on 10 September, but slow running between Koboro and Shizukari, and between Usu and Nagawa on Sapporo-bound trains, causes delays of about 10 minutes for now.³⁷

• Intercity buses:³⁹

  • From Sapporo: Muroran via Noboribetsu about 2 h 40 min, Tomakomai about 1 h 40 min and Noboribetsu Onsen about 1 h 50 min.
  • From New Chitose Airport: Muroran via Noboribetsu about 2 hours, Tomakomai about 1 hour and Noboribetsu Onsen about 1 h 15 min.

• Roads: Three expressways cross the region: the Dō-ō Expressway (E5), the Dōtō Expressway (E38) and the Hidaka Expressway (E63). National Routes 36, 37, 230, 234, 235, 274, 276 and 453 also run through it.¹⁵

• Ferries: Approximate crossing times:³⁹

  • Muroran–Aomori: about 7 hours
  • Tomakomai–Hachinohe: about 8 hours
  • Tomakomai–Sendai: about 15 hours, continuing to Nagoya in about 40 hours
  • Tomakomai–Ōarai: about 19 hours
  • Tomakomai–Akita: about 12 hours, continuing to Niigata in about 20 hours
  • Tomakomai–Tsuruga: about 21 hours direct, or about 34 hours via Akita and Niigata

  Tomakomai also has roll-on/roll-off and container routes to ports across Japan and to South Korea and China.³⁹ Tomakomai's ferries use two terminals, at the West Port and the East Port.¹⁰ See Tomakomai for which routes use which.

• Getting around: Local buses mainly serve residents. Demand-responsive buses and shared taxis also run, or are being studied, in parts of the region.³⁹ A car is the easiest way to link the lakes, volcanoes and farm towns. The Michi-no-Eki in the table above make convenient rest stops.