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In The Know
Did You Know?
With a population of approaching 2 million, Sapporo is the administrative seat of Hokkaido and its main population centre. It is also a prosperous city and the primary focus of cultural life on the island.
Although essentially a brand-new city, with comparatively little in the way of sights for the tourist, Sapporo is lively and cosmopolitan, with nightlife possibilities as exciting as anywhere in Japan. It is a very pleasant place to stay for a couple of days or to use as a base for visits elsewhere on the island. The absence of crowds, futhermore, and its less frantic way of life make Sapporo a comfortable window on modern Japan.Sapporo's history is tied in with the history of Hokkaido. Although a colony was established here in the 16th century, until the Meiji Restoration, Hokkaido (or Ezo as it was called) was all but an irrelevance to the rulers of Japan - an inhospitable place occupied by a barbarous indigenous people, the Ainu. After 1868 the government encouraged people from elsewhere in Japan to settle here and foreign experts were employed to advise on agriculture. Sapporo began to expand from this time, its basic layout the work of an American architect.
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