Shikaoi 鹿追町

The town's name comes from the Ainu Kutek-ushi (クテクウシ). The town quotes Inoue Hisashi's Tokachi Ainu-go Chimei-kai (十勝アイヌ語地名解): ku means a bow, here an amappo (アマッポ) set-bow trap. A kutek was a fence built to steer deer into these traps, and kutek-ushi means "place where there are deer-trapping fences." Japanese settlers translated the idea as 鹿追, literally "chasing deer"⁷.

Several other local names are Ainu, as recorded by the tourism association¹⁶:

• Shikaribetsu (然別). Three readings are cited. The place-name scholar Yamada gives "the river that turns itself around." Chiri gives shiri-kari-pet, "a river whose water eddies." Nagata gives shikari-pet, "a river without an end," but its meaning is unclear. The Shikaribetsu River does bend through the west of town in almost a half circle.
• Urimaku (瓜幕). The association explains the name of the Urimaku River (ウリマク川) as "that hill," "the river at the back" or "the river on the far side."
• Tōmabetsu River (トウマベツ川). To-oma-pet, "the river that goes into the lake." Ainu thought of rivers as climbing from mouth to source, so this is the river that climbs up into Lake Shikaribetsu.
• Nupukaushi Nupuri (ヌプカウシヌプリ). "The mountain that sticks up from the plain." Settlers called it Bōzu-yama ("bald mountain") after land-clearing fires burned off its trees. The name Meoto-yama (夫婦山, "husband-and-wife mountain") came later, from a line in Tokachi Ondo, a song written by Hayashi Toyoshū, first president of the Tokachi Mainichi Shimbun.

• Ainu era. The deer-trap fences in the town's name show that Ainu hunted here. According to the tourism association, the last Ainu residents of Shikaoi lived along the Osoushu River (オソウシュ川), in what is now the Kita-Urimaku / Shizen Land area, until 1966¹⁶.
• 1858–1879. Matsuura Takeshirō (松浦武四郎) crossed inland Tokachi into the Otofuke area in 1858. The American geologist Benjamin Smith Lyman surveyed the Otofuke River in 1874. In 1879 Ōkawa Uhachirō (大川宇八郎) settled at Otofuke and began trading with the Ainu¹.
• 1902. Yamada Matsujirō (山田松次郎) came from Tokyo and settled near today's Shimo-shigai (下市街). The town counts this as its beginning⁸.
• 1913 onward. A post relay station (駅逓) opened, and group settlers came from many parts of Honshu. Post office, police box and restaurants followed⁸. One group came from Iwate Prefecture in 1925; its farming co-op, Nishikami Keiei Kumiai (西上経営組合), still works the high plateau fields¹⁷. The 1920 Census counted 4,526 people in 822 households⁸.
• April 1921. Shikaoi Village split from Otofuke Village⁸.
• 1923–1931. The Kasai Railway (河西鉄道) began carrying sugar beet between Shikaoi and Shimizu in 1923. The Hokkaido Takushoku Railway (北海道拓殖鉄道) was built from Kamishihoro to Shintoku (54.3 km) in 1928–1931, and in 1930 the village office moved to Higashimachi, pulling the town center away from Shimo-shigai⁸. By the 1930 Census the population had jumped 51% to 7,059². Cars later replaced both railways; the last train ran on 31 July 1968⁸.
• Postwar. Groups of wartime evacuees settled here, and a Ground Self-Defense Force camp was brought to town⁸. The seven-year-old Kanda Nissho came with his family from Tokyo in August 1945¹¹.
• 1959–1971. Shikaoi became a town in September 1959. The population peaked at 10,778 in 1961. Cold-summer crop failures then drove many farmers out, and from 1965 the town promoted dairy farming, which copes better with cold. In 1971 the town ranch won first prize in a national grassland contest⁸.
• 1972. The first White Snake Princess Festival was held¹.
• 1985–1993. A sister-city agreement with Stony Plain, Canada, was signed in 1985. The "nature-experience study-abroad" program for city children began in 1988. The Riding Park opened in 1990. In 1993 the main roads through town became National Route 274, and the Kanda Nissho memorial museum opened in June⁸.
• 2003–2005. The first Shikaoi Flower Festa was held in 2003. The town won Japan's top flower-town prize in 2004 and "five blooms," the top rank, in the international Communities in Bloom contest in 2005. The two roadside stations were designated in 2003 and 2005⁸.
• 2007–2016. The biogas-based Shikaoi Environmental Conservation Center opened in September 2007. Tokachi Shikaoi Geopark was certified on 16 December 2013 as Japan's 33rd geopark⁸. Sturgeon farming using surplus plant heat began in 2014¹². A second biogas plant opened at Urimaku in 2016⁸.
• 2016–2019. Typhoons in 2016 cut Miyabe char numbers and closed the Horoshika Pass (幌鹿峠) road. It reopened in April 2019 after two years and eight months⁸.
• 2018. In May, Shikaoi became one of 12 Kamikawa and Tokachi municipalities in the Japan Heritage story "Kamikawa Ainu Living with Kamuy." In the September Iburi-Tōbu earthquake the town recorded seismic intensity 4 and lost power in the Hokkaido-wide blackout⁸.
• 2019. NHK's 100th morning drama, Natsuzora, featured a character modeled on Kanda Nissho. That fiscal year 40,416 people visited his museum, up from 8,115⁸.
• 2021–2023. Shikaoi declared a zero-carbon goal in March 2021, opened a renewable "private power line" network linking public buildings in April, and held its postponed centenary in September. It was chosen as a Decarbonization Leading Area in April 2022 and opened the Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm in May 2022. The 60th Shikaoi ban'ei horse competition in 2022 was the last. In 2023 a new mineral found in the town was named Hokkaidōite (北海道石)⁸.
• 2024–2026. The Shikaoi-set film Oshaberi na Shashinkan (おしゃべりな写真館) opened in February 2024. Kamihoronai Elementary School closed in 2025 after 109 years⁸. "Shikaoi Caviar" went on sale in 2025¹². From 2025 a council has discussed a geothermal survey in the north of the town¹⁸. The Kanda Nissho museum closed for renovation on 1 April 2026¹⁹. On 23–25 June 2026 the town hosted the 21st national training meeting of the Japanese Geoparks Network (日本ジオパークネットワーク全国研修会)²⁰.

Shikaoi lies at the northwest corner of the Tokachi Plain, between the Daisetsuzan range and the Hidaka Mountains. It is long and narrow, 17.7 km east to west and 39.8 km north to south⁷.

• Landforms. The north is high ground that slopes gently south in a wide fan and flattens toward the south. Part of the north is a Ground Self-Defense Force training area⁷. The town center stands at about 200 m, Urimaku at 300 m, and farmland in Nishi-Kamihoronai reaches 500 m¹⁶. Forest covers 20,902 ha (51% of the town), 17,976 ha of it national forest²¹.
• Mountains. Mt. Upepesanke (ウペペサンケ山, 1,848 m) is the highest¹. Others include Mt. Pishikachinai and the eastern and western peaks of Nupukaushinupuri⁷. Around the lake rise Mt. Hakuun (白雲山) and Mt. Tenbō (天望山), part of the Shikaribetsu volcanic group¹⁶.
• Rivers. The Shikaribetsu River (然別川) flows out of the lake and runs south through the town to the Tokachi River, joined by the Tōmabetsu, the Osoushu and other tributaries¹⁶. Ezo cherry trees line 18 km of its embankment, which the town calls the longest cherry row in Hokkaido²².
• Lake Shikaribetsu. The lake is 13.8 km around, up to 99 m deep and 3.4 km² in area according to the tourism association (GSI gives 3.59 km²)¹⁶⁶. Its elevation is given as 804 m by the town and the Kotan organizers, 810 m by the tourism association, and "about 800 m" in the town yearbook^2223168. It formed 10,000–40,000 years ago when volcanic activity dammed a river, and its water is clear to 19.5 m²⁴. The lake is shared with Kamishihoro¹⁶.
• Smaller lakes. Lake Shinonome (東雲湖) is a pond about 1 km around, said to be an old crater and counted among Hokkaido's "three hidden lakes"²⁵. It has no inflow or outflow, and salamanders are its only animal life¹⁶. Lake Komadome (駒止湖) sits by the road down to the lake¹⁶.
• Parks. The north of the town lies in Daisetsuzan National Park⁷. The whole town is Tokachi Shikaoi Geopark, themed "the story of life nurtured by volcanoes and shibare." It has 17 geosites²⁶¹⁵. Around the lake is a field of wind holes (風穴), which the geopark calls one of the largest in Japan. Cold air seeps between the rocks, and the Ezo pika (エゾナキウサギ) lives there²⁷.

Climate. Most of the town has an inland climate⁷. The JMA station in Shikaoi recorded these normals for 1991–2020²⁸:

• Annual mean temperature: 6.6 °C.
• January: mean −6.7 °C, average daily low −11.9 °C.
• August: mean 19.6 °C, average daily high 24.3 °C.
• Annual precipitation: 952.8 mm.

The record high is 37.4 °C (24 July 2025) and the record low −26.3 °C (24 January 1985)²⁹. The station does not measure snow. The tourism association says snow cover has averaged about 60 cm through recent winters, and more than 60 cm once fell in a single night in 1970¹⁶.

• Farming. Agriculture rests on dairy and field crops, with some mixed farms. The staples are milk, sugar beet, potatoes, beans, wheat and feed crops; cabbage and asparagus have been added, and beef cattle help keep the soil fertile⁸.
• Output. Farm output reached ¥27.06 billion in fiscal 2024, up from ¥24.19 billion in fiscal 2019²¹. In fiscal 2021 milk sales alone were ¥13.12 billion and beef-cattle sales ¥4.38 billion, while field crops earned ¥7.01 billion²².
• Land use. Of 11,492 ha of cropland in fiscal 2024 (including 407 ha left unplanted), feed crops took 6,346 ha (3,857 ha of pasture grass and 2,489 ha of silage corn)²¹. The rest included:
  • wheat, 1,711 ha
  • beans, 1,076 ha (642 ha azuki, 396 ha soybeans)
  • potatoes, 946 ha
  • sugar beet, 847 ha
  • buckwheat, 72 ha, and cabbage, 68 ha
• Dairy. The 2020 Census of Agriculture counted 20,760 dairy cattle on 92 farms (225.7 head per farm), against 12,010 head on 227 farms in 1983. Farm households fell from 441 to 221 over the same period²¹.
• Biogas and hydrogen.
  • The Shikaoi Environmental Conservation Center (2007) can treat the daily manure of 1,870 dairy cows. The Urimaku plant (2016) handles the manure of 3,000 cows a day, one of the largest capacities in Japan⁸.
  • In fiscal 2024 the center took in about 102,000 t of manure and sold 6.59 million kWh of electricity for about ¥276 million²¹.
  • The Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm (しかおい水素ファーム, 2022) makes hydrogen from manure gas; 19 fuel-cell vehicles were introduced for the town and local firms. The project won the 2023 EST Transport and Environment Award⁸.
• Sturgeon and caviar. Sturgeon have been raised with surplus plant heat since 2014. From about 2018 the males' meat was sold in and outside the town and served in school lunches, and caviar followed in 2025¹².
• Other employers. JGSDF Camp Shikaoi (陸上自衛隊鹿追駐屯地) hosts the 5th Tank Unit, reorganized in March 2023⁸. In the 2020 Census, 975 of 2,844 working residents (34%) worked in primary industries²¹. Kajima Corporation and Chubu Electric Power are surveying geothermal resources in the north of the town with JOGMEC support; the town says it is taking a "careful and neutral" position¹⁸.
• Tourism. The town counted 683,000 visitors in fiscal 2024, of whom 82,600 came from outside Hokkaido and 23,800 stayed overnight. Since fiscal 2010, the peak was 813,600 in fiscal 2015 and the low 590,300 in fiscal 2021. August is the busiest month (111,700 in 2024)³⁰.
• Population. The 2020 Census recorded a 5.0% drop, the largest in 30 years, and 30.9% of residents were 65 or older². In 2024 the town had 24 births against 62 deaths, and 268 people moved out while 173 moved in². The 2025 preliminary count shows a further 7.7% fall³.
• Revitalization. City children come to live and study through the nature-experience study-abroad program, which began in 1988. Shikaoi High School has recruited nationwide since April 2023, and in January 2025 the board of education partnered with Tsuru University on International Baccalaureate education⁸.

Traditions and venues.

• Hakujahime-mai. The White Snake Princess dance preservation society received a Hokkaido regional culture award in March 2021 and marked its 50th anniversary in February 2023⁸.
• Asakusa link. Local mikoshi (portable-shrine) groups have long joined Asakusa's Sanja Matsuri in Tokyo. This led to the partnership with Taitō Ward, where Hakujahime-mai has also been performed⁴⁶.
• Local History Room (郷土資料室). On the 2nd floor of the town library (東町1-38). Pioneer-era household goods; free; 10:00–17:00; closed Mondays⁴⁷.
• Horse painting contest. The Kanda Nissho museum runs a national horse-painting exhibition for schoolchildren⁸; the 32nd, in 2026, drew 315 entries⁴⁵.
• On screen. The town appears in the films Onna wa Basutei de Fuku o Kigaeta and Oshaberi na Shashinkan, and in Massan, Eien no Nishpa and Kyrie no Uta¹. Two Oshaberi na Shashinkan actors, Nakahara Takeo and Kaku Chikako, became "Shikaoi ambassadors" in January 2025⁴⁸.
• Idolmaster manhole. On 23 August 2026 a manhole cover featuring the Idolmaster character Kuramoto China (倉本千奈) was unveiled at Michi-no-Eki Shikaoi. Its design shows Lake Shikaribetsu's "lakebed rails" (湖底線路), the pika and the Miyabe char. Free manhole cards are handed out at the tourist information desk⁴⁹.

Ainu history in Shikaoi survives mainly in place names; the town has no Ainu cultural facility.

• Place names. The town's own name refers to Ainu deer-trapping fences, and names such as Shikaribetsu, Urimaku, Tōmabetsu and Nupukaushi Nupuri all come from Ainu (see Name origin)⁷¹⁶. Lake Komadome was once called Otchishitō (オッチシトー), translated as "a pond that sounds like a woman sobbing"¹⁶.
• Last residents. The tourism association records that the last Ainu in the town lived along the Osoushu River until 1966. The river's name is said to mean "a river with a waterfall at its mouth," and Tōmon Falls (洞門の滝) is in the Shizen Land area there¹⁶.
• Japan Heritage. Since 2018 Shikaoi has been part of the Japan Heritage story "Kamikawa Ainu Living with Kamuy: the world of the gods handed down in the heart of Daisetsuzan," which covers Ainu life and the Daisetsuzan landscapes, including Lake Shikaribetsu⁸.
• White Snake Princess Festival. Each July the festival includes a kamuy-nomi prayer, traditional Ainu dance and mukkuri music¹⁴⁴⁴. The tourism association presents the White Snake Princess as an Ainu legend of the lake's guardian goddess, while the town yearbook calls it a story "created as an Ainu legend" (アイヌ民族の伝説として創作された物語)¹⁴³⁰.

• Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada. Sister town since 26 August 1985⁶¹.
  • Stony Plain is an agricultural town of about 17,000 people, about 17 km west of Edmonton.
  • The link grew from Shikaoi's "Northern Zone" delegations in 1982 and 1984. A visiting Stony Plain ice hockey team stopped in Shikaoi, and its mayor then proposed the pairing.
  • Since fiscal 1996 every first-year student at Shikaoi High School has made a study trip to Stony Plain.
  • The exchange won the top Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications prize for sister-city exchange in 2010⁶¹.
  • The English Wikipedia gives 1984 as the start of the relationship, while the town gives 1985⁶²⁶¹.
• Taitō Ward, Tokyo. A partner rather than a sister city.
  • The link grew out of mikoshi groups joining the Sanja Matsuri. Shikaoi first sold farm products on Asakusa's Nakamise street in fiscal 2006, and since fiscal 2017 has run stalls at the "Furusato Kōryū Shop Taitō" in the Senzoku-dōri shopping street⁴⁶.
  • A four-year industry and environment cooperation agreement was signed on 1 April 2017 and renewed on 31 March 2021 for another four years, to 31 March 2025. A disaster mutual-aid agreement was also signed on that date⁴⁶.
  • Since April 2022, Taitō residents get discounts at the Kanda Nissho museum and on Riding Park rides⁴⁶.
• Former sister town. Shikamachi (鹿町町), Nagasaki Prefecture, paired with Shikaoi in October 1997. The link ended in March 2010, when Shikamachi merged into Sasebo City⁸. Japanese Wikipedia gives 1998 as the start¹.

• Kanda Nissho (神田日勝, 1937–1970). Painter. Born on 8 December 1937 in Nerima, Tokyo, he came to Shikaoi as a wartime evacuee in 1945 and farmed while teaching himself oil painting. He died on 25 August 1970 at 32, leaving Horse unfinished, and inspired the character Yamada Tenyō in NHK's Natsuzora (2019)¹¹.
• Kaneshita Tatsuo (鐘下辰男). Playwright and stage director, born in Shikaoi¹.
• Nishimoto Kazuhito (西本和人). Former professional baseball player from Shikaoi¹.