Introduction Japan is a nation made up of several islands and is located in the eastern part of Asia, in the Pacific Ocean. The total number of islands making up this nation are close to six thousand in number and the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku. These make up almost ninety seven percent of Japan’s land (McDougall, 1993, p. 23). Most of these islands are characterized by mountains, most of which are volcanic. Hokkaido means North Sea Circuit in the Japanese language and it is the second largest Japanese island. Hokkaido’s neighboring island is Honshu and the two are divided by the Tsugaru Strait. There is focus on this area due to the economic activities that its habitants engage in (McDougall, 1993, p. 24). These activities are favored by the region’s global location which subjects it mainly to temperate conditions. They are mainly agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism. History It is believed by archaeologists that Hokkaido was inhabited by the Ainu, Gilyak and Oroke people some twenty thousand years ago. Form historical studies, Abe no Hirafu fronted a large army north between the periods 658 and 660. Hokkaido is one of the places that Hirafu is believed to have gone. Settlers in Hokkaido traded with Dewa Province, an extension of the Japanese central government between the periods 710 and 1185 (McDougall, 1993, p. 26). Hokkaido was known as Ezochi in the earlier periods and the name only changed after the Meiji re-establishment. The Meiji administration changed the name to Hokkaido and the main reason for this was to secure the island before the Russia widened its control of the Far East beyond Vladivostok. These efforts were championed by Kuroda Kiyotaka and among his early undertakings were to look for an agricultural expert from the US. He found one in the name of William Clark who arrived in Hokkaido in the year 1876. He did a marvelous job by motivating the natives with insights into agriculture and Christianity (Howell, 1994, p. 142). Among the notable occurrences of that decade was a population upsurge from fifty eight thousand to two hundred and forty thousand. Clark is actually the man who established the first agricultural college in that region which was located in Sapporo. Geography of Hokkaido Hokkaido is thenorthernmost land of Japan and is surrounded by two seas, the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Pacific Ocean. As at October 2008, the island stood at a population of 5.54 million, which accounted for about four percent of Japan’s total population (Statistics Bureau, Japan, 2010). Most of Hokkaido’s land bears mountains and flat terrains of volcanic origin. There are several other smaller islands that are counted as part of Hokkaido and they include Rebun, Rishiri and Okushiri, among others. Hokkaido lies in position twenty one in the world by area. By population it lies in position twenty. Hokkaido is volcanically active like the rest of eastern Asia. Several earthquakes do occur and there are quite a number of volcanoes that are deemed to be active like Mount Meakan and Mount Koma. An earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale spawned a tsunami in the year 1993 which ravaged Okushiri and left two hundred and two people dead. Another on