Issue:
April 2026 | Letter from Hokkaido
Pressure is mounting on Hokkaido to submit a fresh bid for the Winter Olympics. But local leaders need convincing
If at first you don’t succeed …. That seems to be the approach being taken by the 144-member Hokkaido Association of Towns and Villages toward a potential bid to host the Winter Olympics. The group is calling on the prefectural government, the national government, and the Japanese Olympic Committee to once again consider Hokkaido as a candidate, less than three years after Sapporo abandoned its quest for the 2030 Games.
This time, the proposal is for an “all-Hokkaido” Olympics. When, exactly, the event might take place is unclear. With the sites of the next three Winter Games already decided (in 2030, 2034, and 2038), the earliest available date is 2042.
There are several reasons driving the proposal. Sapporo announced in the autumn of 2023 that it was officially withdrawing its bid for the 2030 Winter Games, mainly because it never won widespread support from residents. Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto was its biggest champion, along with Sapporo service industry businesses headquartered in Tokyo.
Sapporo residents were less interested in spending money on an Olympics than in funding basic municipal services such as removing snow, maintaining public parks, and paying for the health and social security needs of an ageing local population. They were wary of funneling funds into a giant Olympic party, not least because they were aware that International Olympic Committee officials had expensive tastes.
A second factor, which was less publicized, was that Hokkaido’s politically influential construction companies struggled to see how the Winter Games would benefit their bottom line. They had cashed in after Sapporo was named as host in 1972, when central government cash poured in to rejuvenate the city in preparation for the sports festival to follow. Sapporo’s 2030 bid, however, envisioned a “compact” Games.
To keep costs down, it was all but certain that the central government would refuse to provide subsidies for massive urban renewal projects that would be expected following a successful Olympic bid. That meant few major firms were enthusiastic about the bid and were instead focused on projects they had already launched, including the Hokkaido Shinkansen project and Rapidus-related construction at Shin Chitose Airport.
So few tears were shed in the business community when Mayor Akimoto, who had wanted a Sapporo Olympics to be his legacy, announced the city was no longer bidding.
Olympic bids are approved by national Olympic committees, and the host is usually a city. But circumstances have changed. The Winter Olympics are in trouble, and that’s not entirely due to public anger over spiralling costs or the profligate spending habits of IOC executives.
Climate change and global warming mean the number of places in the northern hemisphere that have the necessary amount and quality of snowfall is declining. In response, the IOC has allowed Winter Olympic bids to become more regional, even crossing borders, as everyone recognizes the growing climate-related risks involved with deciding years in advance to hold winter sport in a single location.
That is what’s behind the Hokkaido-wide proposal. While details of the plan have yet to be announced, it’s easy to envision where many of the events might take place: downhill skiing and skateboarding at Niseko and Furano; bobsleigh and luge in the Sapporo area; ski jumping in Sapporo or Asahikawa; ice hockey, figure skating, and speed skating in Hakodate, Otaru, Sapporo, Asahikawa and Kushiro.
Nakashibetsu, Furano, and the Tokachi area are ideally suited for cross-country skiing. Curling, which an Obihiro friend tells me is the city’s favorite winter sport, could take place there. Pre-Olympic training camps can be pretty much anywhere in the prefecture with the necessary outdoor conditions.
Sapporo could handle the opening and closing ceremonies and the International Media Center could be located in Chitose to ensure easy access by air to the other venues.
The upsides of an all-Hokkaido Olympics include spreading the financial and weather risks in a prefecture that future climate change predictions show is less likely than other parts of the world to have poor snow conditions by 2042. They could also bring in much-needed revenue to more remote parts of the prefecture.
The biggest downsides are the financial burden, especially on smaller cities, and logistical issues. The IOC and winter sports federations have strict standards regarding venues. It’s not yet clear how many buildings and facilities outside Sapporo meet the necessary requirements for hosting Olympic events. Expensive upgrades will likely be needed, as well as possible new construction in smaller towns. Who pays for them is a question the towns and villages association did not address.
Logistical issues include perennial questions about accommodations in places outside Sapporo. The issue isn’t just securing enough hotel rooms for athletes, officials, and the media, but making sure they are the right kind.
Niseko has the kind of luxury resorts IOC and JOC officials always demand. Although more luxury hotels are opening open in Sapporo, along with perfectly decent ones in places like Asahikawa and the Furuno area, it isn’t clear if they meet the standards set by the IOC.
A second issue is transportation. JR Hokkaido local trains to remote parts of the prefecture can be few and far between, making it harder for large numbers of people to get to events held far from the Sapporo area. Buses are available, but many roads are narrow and restricted to two lanes. Heavy snowstorms can delay, and occasionally shut down, train and bus services, and disrupt flights.
These issues will have to be addressed. At the moment, the idea of a Hokkaido-wide Winter Olympics is being greeted with caution by Governor Naomichi Suzuki and Akimoto. And it isn’t clear what residents think about a potential bid.
JOC President Seiko Hashimoto has suggested some events should be held in Nagano in what would be a “mostly Hokkaido” Games.
That idea could dampen enthusiasm among Hokkaido’s leaders and trigger squabbles with JOC officials over the Games’s priorities. It could also dampen enthusiasm among Hokkaido residents, whose support is conditional on being able to watch the events in-person and make use of Olympic sports venues long after the athletes have gone home.
Eric Johnston is the Senior National Correspondent for the Japan Times. Views expressed within are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Japan Times.
