Article

01662 ／あっけしちょう

Hokkaido 厚岸郡

Akkeshi Town

First sea bridge in Hokkaido, town says.

Akkeshi Bridge

Photo by Highten31 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Kokutaiji Temple

For 60 years, head priestskept the temple's chronicle.

Kokutaiji Temple in Akkeshi Town — Photo by Opqr (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Kokutaiji is one of the Ezo Sankanji, three temples the shogunate built in eastern Ezo. Its head priests kept a chronicle from 1804 to 1863 that also records crops grown and wild plants gathered. The materials that include it are a national Important Cultural Property, and the grounds are a national historic site.

Records of 1804 to 1863
National Important Cultural Property
National historic site

02 ／ Akkeshiso

A plant first collected on Oyster Islandwas named for Akkeshi.

In 1891 a plant was first collected on Oyster Island in Lake Akkeshi, and a professor at Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University) named it Akkeshiso after the place it was collected. The island's formal name is Benten Island, and its Benten Shrine appears in a record of 1791. The town notes that the island has shrunk because the ground sank.

First collected in 1891
Shrine recorded in 1791
Island shrunk as ground sank

03 ／ Cape Aikappu

The town says the cape's original name isAinu Ai-kappu, "the thing above the arrow."

Cape Aikappu in Akkeshi Town — Photo by FoxyStranger Kawasaki (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Cape Aikappu stands on sea cliffs several tens of meters high, jutting into Akkeshi Bay. The name came from the thought of overcoming impossible hardship to win the crown of love, and the town records that the original name is the Ainu Ai-kappu, meaning "the thing above the arrow." In 1992 the Bell Arch of Love was completed.

Cliffs tens of meters high
Ai-kappu: above the arrow (town)
Bell Arch completed in 1992

Akkeshi Town from the sky

Now and 1974–78. Tap a photo to zoom in.

Now1974–78

Wide (about 6 km across)

Close (about 1.5 km across)

Now (shot September 2019)Shot 1974–78

Source: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) GSI Tiles（全国最新写真（シームレス）／国土画像情報（第一期：1974〜1978年撮影））

Open in GSI Maps (now)Open in GSI Maps (1974–78)

Living here

About 50 minutes from Kushiro on the Hanasaki Line.

about 9,000 people
Rural district town

The town's access page (checked October 2026) gives about 50 minutes from Kushiro to Akkeshi on the JR Hanasaki Line. Four active JR stations stand in town, including Akkeshi Station, and all four appear in the JR Hokkaido October 2026 timetable.

People living here: 8,892people
Area: 739.12km²
Households: 4,021households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 2 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —3 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

Shape

Borders 4 municipalities.

Akkeshi Town in Japan43.052°N 144.847°E

Territory of Akkeshi Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (Administrative Area Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari.Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

45.1km

Shibecha Town, Hamanaka Town, Betsukai Town, Kushiro Town

Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.

Akkeshi Town isthis kind of town.

01Akkeshi Bridge links the south and north shores of the lake, is 456.5 m long, opened in September 1972, and the town records it as Hokkaido's first sea bridge
02Kokutaiji is one of the Ezo Sankanji; the materials that include the chronicle its head priests kept from 1804 to 1863 are a national Important Cultural Property, and its grounds are a national historic site
03Akkeshiso, first collected on Oyster Island in 1891, took the name of Akkeshi, and the town records that the original name of Cape Aikappu is the Ainu Ai-kappu

See the town as it is now.

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Akkeshi Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes