Hokkaido
Hokkaidō ( [ hok ː aido ː ], jap北海道, North Sea district ') is the second largest island after Honshu Japan.
When living on the island, the island Ainu Aynu Mosir (アィヌ·モシㇼ, land of the Ainu / people ') is called. Along with several neighboring islets, it forms the northernmost prefecture of the country. Coincident with the prefecture of Hokkaido also called a region in Japan.
The prefecture was one of the end of 2005 about 5.7 million people, including about 25,000 indigenous minority of the Ainu. The largest city and seat of the prefectural government is Sapporo.
The Hokkaido -born Japanese call themselves Dosanko (道 产 子, dt as in Hokkaidō born child ).
History
Hokkaido is the home of the Ainu people, from whose language many geographical names on the island, for example, the name of the capital Sapporo result.
First Japanese settlements were established in the 15th century in the south of the island as a trading post. As usual in Japan forms of agriculture on the island were unusable but because of the cool climate, most of the island was inhabited until the second half of the 19th century by Japanese. At this time, allowed western innovations in agriculture also, at the same time increasingly emerged a need for defenses against Russia. The island got its current name until at this time. The capital city of Sapporo was built in the 1860s; in the 1870s, the population of the island quadrupled from 58,000 to 240,000.
Shortly after the Boshin War in 1868 claimed a group of Tokugawa loyalists led by Enomoto Takeaki, Ezo Republic of the island as. This uprising was crushed in May 1869.
On 8 July 1869, the Authority on Development (开拓 使kaitakushi ) was set up and broken down on 15 August Hokkaidō in eleven provinces: Chishima, Hidaka, Iburi, Ishikari, Kitami, Kushiro, Oshima, Shiribeshi, Teshio and Tokachi. On February 8, 1882 resolution of the Development Authority and the division into the three prefectures Hakodate, Sapporo, and Nemuro was. The prefectures were dissolved on January 1, 1886 in favor of the newly founded Hokkaido Agency (北海道 庁Hokkaidō -chō ) based in Sapporo and field offices (支 庁shicho ) in Hakodate, and Nemuro. On November 2, 1897, today's 14 field offices and the field office Shana were established. In December 1903 Shana Nemuro is slammed. On 3 May 1947, the Hokkaido Authority was dissolved and established the Hokkaido prefecture.
On 28 June 2008, the Prefecture Parliament decided to replace the 14 field offices by nine Sogo Shinko kyoku (総 合 振兴 局, Samtförderamt ') and five subordinate Shinko kyoku (振兴 局, conveyor Office ' ), which then took place on 1 April 2010.
Name
Until the Meiji Restoration, the Ainu were (deprecated in German: Jezo, Jesso or Iesso ) also referred to as Ezo. Hokkaidō was then consequently Ezochi (虾 夷 地, Ezo- Land ' ), but which also Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands that involved, or Ezo -ga- shima (蝦夷ヶ島, island of Ezo ' called ).
With the establishment of the Development Authority, the Meiji government wanted to change the name. The researchers Matsuura Takeshiro made these six suggestions for names: Kitakaidō (北 加伊 道, North Kai- district '), Kaihokudo (海北 道, marine North District '), Kaitōdō (海东 道, Meeresostbezirk '), Hitakamidō (日 高见 道), Tōhokudō (东北 道, Northeast District ') and Chishimadō (千岛 道0.1000 Islands District '). Finally, the name Hokkaidō was a compromise between Kitakaidō and Kaihokudo and based on the historical regions of Gokishichidō Tōkaidō (, Ostmeerbezirk ') Nankaido (, Südmeerbezirk ') and Saikaidō (, western sea district ' ) is selected. Matsuura suggested Kitakaidō because the Ainu called the region Kai. Historically Ainu and their islands were identified as Kuyi, Kuye, Qoy etc., which may be associated with the early modern quay. Kai also strongly resembles the Sino- Japanese reading of the characters虾 夷/ ka.i / - more common Kun - reading / emisi / - were used over a thousand years in China and Japan, to designate the Ainu and related peoples. It is possible that Matsuura's Kai was influenced by these Sino- Japanese reading of the variant Niwchisch - Qoy exonym for the Ainu.
Geography
The prefecture was next to the main island with 77984.39 km ² of many islands in the adjacent seas, the Sea of Japan, the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk. The just northeast subsequent Kuril be managed since the war of Russia; However, Japan is the South Kuril Islands as part of Hokkaido and demands to this day in vain the return. The highest elevation is the Asahi with 2291 meters above sea level. In the south of Hokkaidō borders the Tsugaru Strait, which separates the island from the main Japanese island of Honshu. Overall, the region Hokkaidō except the main island are still 508 more islands with a total area of 5473 km ².
Hokkaido is located in a temperate monsoon zone, but with very cold winters. On the island there are active volcanoes.
From Hakodate and Tomakomai, there is a ferry connection to Honshu. In addition, both islands are connected by the second longest tunnel in the world, the 54 -kilometer Seikan rail tunnel under the sea. Ports on the north side are Wakkanai and Abashiri, Kushiro on the east coast and Akkeshi.
Policy
- LDP: 48
- DPJ: 38
- Kōmeitō: 7
- Frontier: 4
- Daichi: 2
- JCP: 1
Governor of Hokkaido 's third term Harumi Takahashi. She finished 2003 a sustained winning streak since 1983 socialist and center-left -supported candidate for governor. Parliament with 104 members from 48 constituencies was last elected in the unified regional elections in April 2011.
Hokkaido is indeed predominantly rural and, in some areas, the LDP is dominant, however, was particularly Sapporo in the postwar period a stronghold of the Socialist Party of Japan ( SPJ ) and the prefecture was total as Kakushin Okoku (, progressive UK '), so as a stronghold of left-wing opposition to the LDP. After the restoration of the political landscape in the 1990s, the DPJ could often perform well in national elections in Hokkaido; she was there back in 1996 stronger than the LDP and the NFP, which was the nation's second largest party at the time. In Shūgiin, the lower house of the national parliament, the Liberal Democrats won in 2012 eleven of the twelve Shūgiin constituencies, the twelfth went to the Confederate Kōmeitō. The Democratic party lost all their seats. For the proportional representation for Shūgiin Hokkaidō is next to Tokyo the only prefecture, which alone forms a block. There, eight members are elected; 2012, the LDP was 26.4 % of the vote for the first time the strongest party, winning three of proportional representation seats. In the upper house, the Sangiin, the number of seats in Hokkaido was halved in the 1990s from eight to four, the prefecture So now selects two members per election and distributes them as most two- mandate constituencies on both major parties.
The largest area of Hokkaido Prefecture heard despite their relatively large population of the financially weaker prefectures of the country. Many rural areas are in addition to the country's already declining population affected by migration to the cities; with the former mining town of Yubari in Hokkaido is now the only city in Japan insolvent.
Earthquake
On 25 September 2003 the southwest of the island by a series of earthquakes was - 54 earthquakes until October 18 to starch 4.5 Mw - affected. The main quake ( Tokachi - oki Jishin, Tokachi earthquake ') on 25 September 19:50 UTC clock had a magnitude of 8.3 Mw. It was until then the most powerful quake in Japan since the beginning of 2001 and the total third-strongest earthquake rich in this region.
Administrative divisions
The Hokkaido prefecture (総 合 振兴 局, literally Samtförderamt German, English General Subprefectural Bureau) divided into 9 Sogo Shinko Shinko kyoku and five subordinate kyoku (振兴 局, dt literally conveying Office, Eng. Subprefectural Bureau). These were established on 1 April 2010, but go right back to the previous 14 shicho (支 庁engl. Subprefecture ). As an administrative level, they are similar to the West German government districts and enable effective management, even in the Japanese standards vast and inaccessible in the winter parts of the prefecture.