To the foreign visitors to Akkeshi

Akkeshi Town is located in the northern extremity of Japan, in the south eastern part of Hokkaido at 43° north latitude. The annual average temperature is 6°C with the highest temperature of around 30°C and the lowest of around -18°C.

The south side faces the Pacific Ocean with the coastline between the Akkeshi Lake and the Akkeshi Bay that reaches 72 km, making it a town of prosperous fishery since long ago. And a dairy belt spreads out in the hilly terrain with approx. 110 dairy farmers producing mainly raw milk, which is one of the representative industries of Akkeshi Town along with the fishery.

Population: Approx. 11,000 people, Gross area: 739 square km

[JR (JR Hanasaki-line)] Kushiro <-- (approx. 50 min.) --> Akkeshi <-- (approx. 1.5 hr) --> Nemuro

[JR (Limited Express)] Sapporo<-- (approx. 30 min.) --> Minami-chitose <-- (approx. 3.5 hr) --> Kushiro

[Bus route] Kushiro <-- (approx. 1 hr 20 min.) --> Attoko <-- (approx. 50 min.) --> Hamanaka (Kiritappu)

[Air route (time)]

	Sapporo (New Chitose Airport)	Hakodate	Tokyo	Nagoya	Osaka
Kushiro	50 min.	1 hr 15 min.	1 hr 45 min.	2 hr	-
Nakashibetsu	-	-	1 hr 40 min.	-	-
Memanbetsu	50 min.	-	1 hr 45 min.	2 hr	2 hr 30 min.
New Chitose	-	40 min.	1 hr 40 min.	1 hr 55 min.	2 hr

[Road section distance]

	Shibecha	Hamanaka	Nemuro	Nakashibetsu Airport	Kushiro	Kushiro Airport
Akkeshi	38 km	39 km	78 km	76 km	76 km	76 km
	Akan-kohan	Kawayu-onsen	Raus	Utoro (Shiretoko)	Abashiri	Memanbetsu Airport
Akkeshi	103 km	130 km	140 km	180 km	193 km	182 km

Spring: The average temperature until the last third of March is around -4°C, with snowfalls until the first third of April and sometimes even in May. In mid-May, we have increasingly more fine weathers with cherry blossoms becoming in full bloom in the last third of May.

Summer: With a lot of fogs emerging from the sea until the last third of August, we have small hours of sunshine. As a result, it is cool and comfortable to live even in summer, with the average temperature of around 17°C, rarely exceeding 30°C.

Fall: This is a season when we have the biggest number of fine days throughout the year with the average temperature comfortable to live, of around 15°C. On the other hand, this is a period with the most rainfalls due to the effects of typhoon etc.

Winter: As the snowfalls begin rather late with small amount of snow accumulation, the frozen soil reaches around 70 cm. The Akkeshi Lake freezes from time to time with the average temperature of around -5°C and the lowest temperature reaching -20°C sometimes.

Akkeshi Town has a rich natural environment including Akkeshi Lake and Bekanbeushi Marsh, which became a registered marsh in 1993 under the Ramsar Convention, and diverse animals and plants inhabiting.

Also we, at the public administration, put a great deal of emphasis on environmental preservation to protect such excellent natural environments. Activities by town residents are also active, working on such as tree planting by fishermen to protect the fishery resource through preserving the forest, and efforts not to use synthetic detergents for water quality preservation.

Akkeshi Town, with a variety of fish species produced out of the rich sea facing the Pacific Ocean and the favored environment of Akkeshi Lake, has various marine products unloaded throughout the four seasons. On production basis, Pacific saury, salmon/trout, sea tangle, oyster, and Japanese littleneck clam occupy the high rank.

In recent years, efforts to convert to “Fishery to grow” have been made through discharge of fry of herring etc., production and discharge of sea urchin seeds, and maintenance and management of the fishing ground for sea tangle, working actively on management of the fishery resource. Particularly in the oyster culture, the single seed method in addition to the conventional culture method is performed, receiving a highly rated evaluation by consumers too.

The agriculture in Akkeshi Town began in earnest in 1890 when 440 families from other prefectures settled and cultivated. While around 220 families settled since then running dry field farming etc., an attempt was made to convert to the most stable dairy farming, due to severe natural condition such as cool weather condition and soil ill-suited to dry field farming.

After the conversion, it has developed to become a major key industry in Akkeshi Town by improving productivity through expansion of the scale, and thanks to breeding in the so called “free-stall” that allows free move inside, and advancing large-scale mechanization and productivity increase, boasting the raw milk production to rank high in Hokkaido.