Exploring the reasons behind Hokkaido's low population density

Why is Hokkaido basically empty? If you don't want to watch the full video, here's the short answer. It's cold. Now let's get started. Japan is an archipelago in East Asia and it's beautiful. Now that the mandatory billboards reference is out of the way, Japan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. With a population of approximately 125 million people, yet only 4% of them live in one of the country's biggest islands, the northernmost one called Hokkaido. And to be fair, the population distribution throughout the country is far from uniform. The majority of Japan's inhabitants live in a few densely packed urban areas with vast portions of the country remaining sparsely populated. But one of the most striking examples of this uneven distribution is in fact Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's main islands and the third largest in size. It accounts for 20% of the country's territory. Despite that significant land area, comparable to the size of entire countries like Austria or even close to neighboring South Korea, Hokkaido is home to only about 5 million people. I mean, South Korea has about 50 million, that's 10 times more with a similar size. It also has a significantly lower population density compared to the other major regions in Japan so in this video we are going to find out why it is so empty guys a quick reminder the general knowledge plushy campaign is still ongoing there's a couple days left so if you want a teddy bear like figure but with my channel's icon all you have to do is go to the link in the description signal that you would be interested in purchasing by committing one dollar and then if we don't reach the goal no problem everybody will be refunded. It's just an attempt to do something fun so let's see if that's possible. Now Japan's population is like I said concentrated in very specific regions with the majority of people residing in Honshu the largest and most central island. Within it the Kanto region which includes Tokyo is by far the most populated area housing over 37 million people in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area alone. That area is 13.5 thousand square kilometers, about six times smaller than Hokkaido, but with seven times more people. To be fair, it is the most populous urban area in the world, so maybe it's a little bit unfair of a comparison, but still. Other highly populated areas include the Kansai region, home to Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, and the Chubu region, including Nagoya. In contrast, Japan's rural regions, including Tohoku and Hokkaido, have much lower population densities. This uneven distribution is largely influenced by geography. Japan is a predominantly mountainous country, with approximately 73% of its land covered by mountains. I mean, if we look at a terrain map, we can instantly see this. Most of the land is brown slash yellow, showing its elevation, with very few green, flat areas. As a result, flat and habitable land is limited, leading to a concentration of people in those coastal and lowland areas. It's part of the reason why they have mega regions or megalopolis too, the flatland is so limited that cities end up merging into each other. Additionally, we have some economic aspects that explain the emptiness of Hokkaido and other parts of the country. The country's economy has historically been centered around trade, farming and manufacturing, all activities that need flatlands to function, and so further reinforcing the concentration of people in those areas. Beyond topography, historical developments such as industrialization and urbanization also played a major role in shaping Japan's current population distribution. Industrial centers like Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya grew exponentially due to technological advances. The presence of government institutions, corporate headquarters, and educational centers came after and also attracted people to those regions. It's sort of a repetitive cycle right there's a few people in these places and so all the institutions jobs and government officials go there and then more people go there because of that development by contrast rural regions namely Hokkaido lack these extensive industrial developments and this caused slower population growth and helped the fact that it remained largely rural today the largest economic sectors in Hokkaido are farming, fishing and tourism, contrasting with the rest of Japan where industry and service providers are the main ones. So let's take a look at Hokkaido specifically to better understand it. Hokkaido has an area of about 83,450 square kilometers, making it the third largest island in Japan, yet it is home to only 5.1 million people, about 4% of the country's total of 124.5 million people. This gives it a population density of approximately 60 people per square kilometer, which is significantly lower than the national average of around 330 people per square kilometer. To put this into perspective and compare it again to the country's capital, Tokyo has a staggering population density of over 6,000 people per square kilometer. To create a second layer of contrast, most of Hokkaido's population itself is also concentrated in just a few urban centers, particularly in Sapporo, the island's capital and largest city. It alone has about 2 million residents, meaning that nearly 40% of Hokkaido's population is concentrated in this single city. Other relatively populated areas include Asahikawa, Asahikawa, and Kushiro, but outside these cities vast portions of the island remain sparsely populated or even completely empty. Again, terrain is mostly at fault. And we can go back to that terrain map to visualize it. Much of the island's land is covered by forests and mountains, which have been closed off in many cases and delimited as national parks, limiting areas suitable for habitation. Additionally, the transportation infrastructure is not as extensive as in other parts of Japan. While Hokkaido does have a railway system and highways, these networks are not as dense or as well connected as those in Honshu for instance, the main island. I believe the popular bullet trains also don't exist there, making travel and commuting less convenient. The lower level of infrastructure development has also played a role in discouraging people from living there. But there's also the issue of climate, and it might even be the main one here. Because the island is considerably far north at latitude 43 degrees north of the equator. Imagine places like Northern China, South Mongolia, Bulgaria or South Dakota in the US, all of them are reasonably cold places. A fun fact, the southern border of the state of South Dakota is actually the parallel line itself. But anyway. We can understand that one of the primary reasons for Hokkaido's low population is also its harsh climate. They experience a humid continental climate with long harsh winters and very heavy snowfall. Winter temperatures can drop below 10 degrees Celsius in many areas making daily life and infrastructure maintenance more challenging. The snowfall affects everything, transportation, construction, roads and railways require extensive maintenance during winter and snow related delays are pretty common apparently. Agriculture, which also plays a crucial role in Hokkaido's economy, is also impacted by the climate. The cold weather limits the types of crops that can be grown, with farming primarily focusing on hardier crops such as potatoes, wheat and dairy farming which brings us a very interesting contrast with the rest of Japan and Asia in general. Because unlike the more temperate regions of Japan where rice paddies dominate, Hokkaido's agricultural output differs significantly. This is relevant for the population issue because those crops aren't able to feed as many people. I read somewhere an additional argument of Hokkaido's terrain being rugged, with extensive mountains and volcanic activity, with the island being prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, further complicating large-scale human settlement, but isn't that the case with all Japan? I mean, I feel like every other month we see some news report about a new typhoon, a new flood, a new earthquake that the country sadly had to go through, so I don't think it's as valid as an argument here. Other than terrain or weather, there's also the historical and social aspects of the island. And in fact one other common challenge that it faces along with the rest of Japan is a very aging population. The island has super low birth rates and the smallest base population they have compared to the rest of Japan makes it a more serious issue for them than the rest of the country. However I think it's also in its history that the problem lies. Hokkaido has a unique history compared to the rest of Japan and for most of that history, the island was not fully integrated into the country. It was traditionally inhabited by the indigenous Ainu people, who had a distinct culture and way of life, centered around hunting and fishing. Those people were also native to the today Russian islands of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and the Kamchatka Peninsula, essentially all the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk. It was only during the late 19th century, under the Meiji Restoration period, that Japan actively colonized Hokkaido, encouraging migration from Honshu and attempting to develop the island to take advantage of its natural resources. And that process of Japanese colonization of Hokkaido was somewhat disastrous to the island in the long run. The native Ainu were subject to mandatory assimilation. Imperial Japan forced Ainu people off of their land, with many leaving Hokkaido entirely to go work somewhere else in Japan. This in turn forced them to give up traditional ways of life such as subsistence hunting and fishing. Ainu people were not allowed to practice their religion either and were placed into Japanese language schools where speaking the Ainu language was forbidden and this caused the language to essentially die out. In 1966 there were about 300 native Ainu speakers, in 2008 only 100 left and today likely even less there are some efforts to revive it. And the thing is the imperial colonization worked. Estimates of the Ainu population vary, but official Japanese government figures suggest that today there's only about 13,000 self-identified Ainu in Hokkaido. Some researchers argue that the actual number might be higher, some people don't want to admit to being Ainu because of the blowback that they might suffer, there's still some degree of discrimination today, and also the fact that that they might just not know that they have Ainu heritage. More generous estimates point to around 25-30 thousand people being Ainu in Hokkaido. But this still means that over 99% of the island's population consists of ethnic Japanese, with the Ainu making up less than 0.5% of the total population. The forced exile of the island's native people and the forced development by the Japanese might have broken the natural evolution and growth of the island's development, maybe they had been able to keep their identity, there would be more people living on the island today. But there's something else that we need to mention here as we wrap up the video. Despite its relatively small population in the Japanese context, Hokkaido still has more inhabitants than many countries I mean, 5 million people is a lot. For instance, it has a higher population than New Zealand, Ireland, and even getting close to Norway. It's just the context, you know? Japan has so many people and the island is so big in proportion to the rest of the archipelago that it's odd that so few people live there but after understanding the terrain weather and social slash historical aspects of the island it does make it a little easier to understand why that is the case so that is why so few people live in the northern most and third largest island in the archipelago of Japan what are some other sparsely populated areas in other countries let me know in the comments make sure to check out some of my other videos and subscribe if you want to catch future ones as always thank you so much to my patrons for supporting me directly if you want to join our little community over there you'll be very welcomed and i will be very thankful to you for supporting the channel directly either way i will see you next time for more general knowledge somebody playing the recorder outside this is the moment cup that i have today it is green and there's a moment he's on the side that i'm watching now he's like playing with a with a friend which is just a microphone yeah and i'm describing the opposite one yeah here he's playing with a friend and then this one he has like a radio of some sort i think so