Shari 斜里町

• Shari (斜里): from the Ainu sar, "a marsh where reeds grow". The name originally referred to this whole area. The Shari River itself was sar-un-pet, "the river in the reed marsh", and reeds are said to grow thickly on both banks near its mouth²⁴. The town gives the same meaning, from saru or sharu, "a place where reeds grow"⁸. There is another famous sar, the Saru River (沙流) in Hidaka, so Shari was sometimes called pinne-sar ("male sar") and the Hidaka one matne-sar ("female sar")²⁴. Japanese Wikipedia, citing the place-name scholar Yamada Hidezō, adds that old stories from southern Hokkaido call this place mosir-pa-sar, "the sar at the upper end of the island"⁹.
• Shiretoko (知床): sir-etok, "the tip of the land", in other words a cape. From the Shari coast you can clearly see the peninsula running out past the ridges of Mt. Rausu and Mt. Shiretoko²⁴.
• Utoro (ウトロ, formerly 宇登呂) has two readings. Chiri Mashiho read it as uturu-ci-kus-i, "the place where we pass between (the rocks)", meaning the narrow path between Godzilla Rock and a large pot-shaped rock near the harbor. Matsuura Takeshirō read it as "where boats pass between rocks". The Hokkaido list prefers Chiri's reading²⁵.
• Other place names in the town:
  • Shuen (朱円): from suma-tukari-pet, "the river on this side of the stones". The coast is sand on the Shari side of this river and stones beyond it. The name changed from Shumatokari to the kanji 朱円, which later came to be read "Shuen"²⁴.
  • Onnebetsu (遠音別): onne-pet, "big river"²⁶.
  • Unabetsu (海別): una-pet, "ash river", said to be named for an eruption that choked the river with ash²⁵.
  • Iwaobetsu (岩尾別): iwaw-pet, "sulfur river"²⁵.
  • Rusha (ルシャ): ru-e-san-i, "where the path comes down to the shore". This was an old route across the lowest part of the peninsula to the Rausu side²⁷.
  • Kamuiwakka: "water of the gods"²⁸.
  • Puyuni Cape: "the place with a hole"¹⁴.

• Prehistory. People have lived here for about 30,000 years. The earliest stone tools, from before pottery, are of a northern Asian type⁸.
  • The Shari Shuen stone circle (斜里朱円周堤墓) is a Late Jōmon burial ground. The Shuen pit-dwelling sites (朱円竪穴住居群) span the Jōmon to Satsumon and Okhotsk periods. Both are protected sites²⁹.
  • Between the 8th and 12th centuries, seafaring people of the Okhotsk culture moved east along this coast toward the Kurils and left many sites in Shari⁸.
  • The Chashikotsu Misaki-jō site (チャシコツ岬上遺跡) near Utoro dates from the end of the Okhotsk culture. It became a national historic site in 2019⁸²⁹.
• Trading-post era.
  • A Matsumae retainer reached Shari in 1635⁸.
  • In 1789 the Ainu of Shari asked the Matsumae domain to send official trading ships. In 1790 the Shari trading post (斜里場所) was split off from the Sōya post⁸.
  • Shari Shrine's old prayer hall dates from 1796²⁹.
  • From 1815 the merchant Fujino Kihei (藤野喜兵衛) ran the Sōya and Shari posts on his own⁸.
• The 1807 Tsugaru tragedy. Russian ships raided Sakhalin and the Kurils, and the shogunate took direct control of Ezo. It sent more than 100 soldiers of the Tsugaru domain to guard Shari, with the explorer Mogami Tokunai (最上徳内) in command. They arrived after a 12-day march overland. They had no experience of wintering in the cold and too little bedding and food. From mid-November most fell ill with edema (水腫病), and 72 died over the winter⁸²³. The sites of their camp and graves are now town historic sites²⁹.
• Meiji administration and first farmers.
  • The explorer Matsuura Takeshirō passed through Shari to the tip of the peninsula in 1846⁸.
  • The area became Shari District of Kitami Province in 1869⁸.
  • In 1872 five villages were named: Shari, Shimatokari, Onnebetsu, Yanbetsu and Aoshimai. They were given kanji names in 1875⁸.
  • In 1877 Suzuki Yōta (鈴木養太) began farming at Akagami. The town honors him as the pioneer of Shari farming⁸.
  • Early industry centered on salmon and sulfur. A salmon hatchery opened on the Sarapa River in 1899, and a shared salmon and trout cannery opened in 1903. Steamships came to load sulfur from Shiretoko, and Mt. Iō (Shiretoko-Iōzan) erupted violently in 1880⁸.
• Group settlement. In 1913 the Mitsui Farm (三井農場) brought settlers from prefectures elsewhere in Japan to clear 3,000 chōbu of wild land, and in 1914 the number of farm settlers jumped⁸. The settlement of Horobetsu and Iwaobetsu on the peninsula also began in 1914⁹. The sources consulted do not say which prefectures the settlers came from.
• Village to town.
  • The five villages merged into Shari Village in 1915, and Koshimizu split off in 1919⁸.
  • The Senmō railway reached Shari from Abashiri in 1925 and was completed through to Kushiro in 1931. Sugar beet farming started in 1925⁸.
  • In 1936 teams from Japan and Britain came to watch a total solar eclipse⁸.
  • Shari became a town on 1 January 1939. Kami-Shari split off in 1943⁸.
• War and postwar fishing.
  • On 22 June 1945 the US submarine Barb fired rockets at the town⁹. English Wikipedia calls this the first submarine-based rocket attack against a surface target⁶.
  • Fishing-ground development began in 1947 and Utoro harbor in 1949. Salmon set-net fishing then grew into the town's main industry⁸.
  • The Konpoku Line (根北線) to Koshikawa ran only from 1957 to 1970. Its Koshikawa Bridge (built 1940), which trains never crossed, is now a registered tangible cultural property⁸²⁹³⁰.
• The "Shiretoko boom." Tourism took off in stages:
  • 1958: the Shari–Utoro road opened.
  • 1962: sightseeing boats began.
  • 1964: Shiretoko became Japan's 23rd national park.
  • 1971: the song "Shiretoko Ryojō" (知床旅情) was a big hit.
  • 1980: the Shiretoko Crossing Road opened.
  • 1981: annual visitors passed one million⁹⁸.
• Conservation. Many settler farms on the peninsula failed and were abandoned, and developers began buying up the land. In 1977 the town started the 100 m² Movement, selling shares at ¥8,000 each to buy back 860 ha⁹. It reached its goal in 1997 and was followed by a "Forest Trust" to restore the forest⁸. By March 2025 it had drawn 73,842 donations worth ¥1.04 billion and protected 862.7 ha⁷.
• Twin ties. The town made Taketomi, Okinawa, its sister town in 1973 and put up a memorial to the Tsugaru samurai the same year. Hot water was also struck at Utoro in 1973. It signed a friendship pact with Hirosaki in 1983 and held the first Neputa festival that year⁸.
• 2000s.
  • Talks on a Heisei-era merger failed. In October 2004 the town passed a "Declaration to Protect and Nurture Shiretoko" (知床を守り育てるまち宣言) after a quarrel over a neighboring town's plan to put "Shiretoko" in a new city name⁹.
  • World Heritage inscription came in 2005⁸.
  • Both Michi-no-Eki opened in 2007, and the Shari Brand scheme began in 2009⁸.
• Recent events.
  • In 2019 Chashikotsu became a national historic site. In 2020 "Shiretoko" license plates arrived. In 2021 Shari was designated a depopulating area (過疎地域). In 2022 it declared itself a zero-carbon city⁸.
  • On 23 April 2022 the tour boat KAZU I sank off the peninsula's west coast. All 26 people aboard died; six of them were never found and were legally declared dead³¹.
  • Neputa returned in 2023 after four years off during COVID-19. The national park turned 60 and was registered as a Zero-Carbon Park in 2024, and 2025 marked 20 years of World Heritage⁸.

• Shape and setting. Shari is the easternmost municipality of the Okhotsk region. It has more than 100 km of Okhotsk coastline to the north and the Shiretoko mountains to the southeast, which give it a bow-like triangular shape¹. It shares the Shiretoko Peninsula, about 25 km wide and 65 km long, with Rausu⁹. Utoro is about 40 km from the town center³², and the Five Lakes are about 20 minutes' drive beyond it¹.

• Mountains. The Shiretoko range includes:

  • Mt. Rausu (羅臼岳), the highest at 1,660 m. The Geospatial Information Authority revised its height down from 1,661 m on 1 April 2025³³.
  • Shiretoko-Iōzan (知床硫黄山), 1,562 m.
  • Mt. Unabetsu (海別岳), 1,419 m.
  • Mt. Onnebetsu (遠音別岳), 1,330 m.
  • Mt. Shiretoko (知床岳), 1,254 m.

  Mt. Shari (斜里岳, 1,547 m) rises to the south⁷.

• Rivers and lowlands. The Shari River and its branches drain a fertile plain between the foothills of Mt. Shari and Mt. Unabetsu⁹. Forest covers about 57,035 ha, most of it national forest (49,799 ha)⁷. Of the land, 578.42 km² is recorded as forest and 114.07 km² as farmland⁷.

• Protected areas.

  • Shiretoko National Park (designated 1 June 1964) covers 38,954 ha of land in Shari and Rausu³⁴. 23,011 ha of it lies in Shari⁷.
  • In Shari there are also 491 ha of Abashiri Quasi-National Park, 915 ha of Shari-dake Prefectural Natural Park (1980), the 1,045 ha Onnebetsu-dake Wilderness Area (1980) and the Ikushina coastal conservation area (125 ha)⁷.

• Climate. The Shari weather station (JMA normals, 1991–2020) records an annual mean of 6.2 °C.

  • February averages −7.0 °C and August 19.3 °C.
  • Precipitation is only 802 mm a year and snowfall 524 cm³⁵.
  • Extremes: 37.1 °C on 26 August 2023 and −31.6 °C on 17 February 1978. The deepest snow was 155 cm, on 13 March 1990³⁶.
  • Utoro, on the peninsula, is wetter and snowier: 1,202 mm of precipitation and 635 cm of snowfall a year, with an annual mean of 6.4 °C³⁷.
  • Snow melts late. Until mid-June, föhn winds from the southeast can blow hard across the fields¹.

• Three pillars. The town lists farming, fishing and tourism as its core industries, with food processing tied closely to the first two¹. At the 2020 Census, 22.6% of workers were in primary industry, 16.6% in secondary and 60.8% in tertiary⁷.

• Fisheries. Salmon set nets dominate the catch.

  Year	Salmon	Trout	Total catch
  2021	5,047 t (¥4.45 billion)	149 t	7,520 t (¥5.37 billion)
  2024	14,406 t (¥14.77 billion)	74 t	17,315 t (¥16.07 billion)

  The catch has swung widely in recent years¹⁷. Besides salmon and trout, the main catches are Okhotsk atka mackerel (hokke), octopus and thornyhead (kichiji). In 2023 there were 53 fishing businesses employing 379 people⁷¹⁷. The Utoro fishing harbor section completed in 2016 is a rare two-level port. Visitors can watch salmon being landed from its upper deck³⁸.

• Farming. The farming is large-scale upland cropping: potatoes, sugar beet and wheat, plus carrots and onions, on 9,647 ha⁷.

  • In 2025 the town's farm output was ¥12.84 billion (crops ¥11.37 billion, livestock ¥1.47 billion)³⁹.
  • There were 237 farm households. Farms are getting bigger: 63 of them now work 50 ha or more³⁹.
  • Hokuren has run a sugar factory at Naka-Shari since 1958⁸.

• Manufacturing. 23 plants with four or more workers employed 533 people and shipped goods worth ¥41.85 billion in 2024⁴⁰. Food processing tied to farming and fishing is a large part of it¹.

• Tourism.

  • Visitors reached 1,001,914 in 2025, back above one million after falling to 553,091 in 2021. Of these, 726,586 came from outside Hokkaido and 372,152 stayed overnight⁴⁰.
  • Visitor spending was about ¥10.1 billion in fiscal 2024⁷.
  • Utoro has 19 places to stay with room for 4,175 guests. The town center has 10 with room for 463⁷.

• Population and revitalization.

  • In the 2020 Census, 33.6% of residents were 65 or older⁷. In fiscal 2024 there were 38 births and 167 deaths, and 74 more people moved out than in⁷. The national government designated Shari a depopulating area in 2021⁸.
  • The town's responses include:
    • the "Shiretoko Shari Brand" (知床しゃりブランド) certification for food made in Shari from local ingredients⁴¹
    • a furusato nozei program with a local gift voucher, "Shiretoko Tabipon" (知床たびポン)³⁰
    • a 2021 partnership with the outdoor company Goldwin⁸
    • the 2022 Zero-Carbon City declaration, and the national park's registration as a Zero-Carbon Park in 2024⁸

Furusato nozei. Gifts are dominated by salmon and ikura. The town also runs "Shiretoko Tabipon" (知床たびポン), a pay-on-the-spot furusato nozei voucher for visitors, and has used crowdfunding to save the Koshikawa Bridge and to repair a handmade fish ladder³⁰¹⁶.

• Neputa and the Tsugaru link. In 1973 residents put up a memorial to the Tsugaru soldiers and began holding a yearly memorial service. That led to the friendship pact with Hirosaki in 1983, and Hirosaki's neputa were brought to Shari the same July. The first parade had just two fan floats²³. About 20 floats are kept at the museum's exchange hall⁵⁰.
• Shrines and temples. Shari Shrine (斜里神社): its old prayer hall (1796) and stone lanterns (1834) are town cultural properties. Zenryū-ji (禅龍寺, Sōtō Zen) keeps the death register of the Tsugaru soldiers from 1807. There are memorial stones to them (1812) in the Town Park and at Nisshō-ji (日照寺)²⁹.
• Museums.
  • The Shiretoko Museum (知床博物館) opened on 28 December 1978 for the town's centenary. The Sister Town and Friendship City Exchange Hall was added in 1993⁵¹. Admission ¥300, free for primary and junior-high pupils, open 9:00–17:00⁵².
  • The Kita no Alp Museum (北のアルプ美術館) keeps every issue of the mountain literary magazine Alp, which ended in 1983, together with its original manuscripts and prints⁵³.
• On screen. Films shot in Shari include the Tora-san film Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Shiretoko Bojō and the Chinese hit If You Are the One (非誠勿擾)⁹.

• Early Ainu period. The town's own history says that in the early Ainu period the area was ruled by no outside power and traded with the mainland of Asia through Sōya and Sakhalin. The Shari trading post itself was opened in 1790, after the local Ainu asked for official trade in 1789⁸. The Chashikotsu Misaki-jō site, on top of Chashikotsu Cape near Utoro and dating from the last years of the Okhotsk culture, is now a national historic site⁸²⁹.
• Place names and legends. Almost every place name on the peninsula is Ainu, from Shiretoko itself (sir-etok) to Utoro, Rusha and Iwaobetsu (see Name origin). According to an Ainu legend, the Five Lakes were made where a god pressed his fingers into the ground¹⁴. Seen from the cruise boats:
  • Kunneporu (クンネポール) means "black cave".
  • Kashuni Falls (カシュニの滝) means "place with a hut". Ainu travelling from Utoro to the cape are said to have stopped there for the night¹⁵.
• Museum displays. The Shiretoko Museum's history floor runs through the Jōmon, Epi-Jōmon, Okhotsk, Tobinitai and Satsumon cultures and the Ainu period, and then early-modern Shari⁵⁰. The English guide lists the sections "The land of God" and "The exploitation"⁵¹.
• Matsuura Takeshirō. The explorer, who named Hokkaido, made three trips to Shiretoko and described it in his Shiretoko Nisshi (知床日誌). A monument to him was put up at Utoro in 1988, the 100th anniversary of his death⁵⁴.
• Present day. The sources consulted found no Ainu cultural center or regular Ainu cultural event in Shari. The Shiretoko Shari Association lists passing on "Ainu traditions" among the local culture it aims to hand down¹³.

• Taketomi (竹富町), Okinawa Prefecture — sister town, pact signed 10 January 1973. When Okinawa returned to Japan in 1972, Shari residents wanted to help the islands rebuild. The two towns also sit at opposite ends of Japan, and each has a national park: Iriomote in the southwest and Shiretoko in the northeast⁷⁵⁷.
• Hirosaki (弘前市), Aomori Prefecture — friendship city, pact signed 12 February 1983, renewed 15 November 2006 after Hirosaki merged with neighboring municipalities. The tie goes back to the Tsugaru domain soldiers who died in Shari in 1807. The story had been forgotten until the Shari local history society rediscovered it in 1968. The mayor of Hirosaki attended the 10th memorial service in Shari in 1982, and the pact followed the next year⁷⁵⁷.

• Takebe Tsutomu (武部勤): politician and former member of the House of Representatives, born in Shari⁹⁶.
• Takebe Arata (武部新): member of the House of Representatives⁹.
• Takeda Toyoki (武田豊樹): keirin cyclist and former speed skater. He placed 8th in the 500 m at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics⁹⁸.
• Tatsuhikari Kumagorō (立洸熊五郎): former sumo wrestler⁹⁶.