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Shikotsu-Tōya NP., Hokkaido
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Before the dam flooded the upper gorge, local children hiked to a natural carbonated spring about 2 km upstream, added their own sugar and made fizzy drinks. The spring now lies beneath Jozan Lake.
A 50m construction tunnel, dug to strengthen the dam’s foundations, now ages local wine and Japanese tea. It stays around 10°C with near-100% humidity; a trial begun in 2015 became a full local-produce program in 2025.
A late-Edo record by explorer Matsuura Takeshiro gives Hoheikyo the older name Kamui-nisei, translated as “cliff of the kamuy.” His account also preserves a story of a precipice cut by kamuy long ago.
The 53m Kamui-Nisei Bridge reaches toward the dam, but its weight is carried from the opposite side—not by the dam itself. Its cantilevered PC finback design was the first of its kind in Japan.
Cliffs over 250m high frame the dam. Their rock, called hyaloclastite, formed when lava erupted underwater about 10 million years ago—evidence that this dramatic gorge was once an active submarine volcanic landscape.
Since 1976, electric vehicles have carried visitors through Hoheikyo’s protected national-park approach to the dam. The bus operator received an Environment Minister’s commendation for conservation in 2007; today’s fleet is its third generation.
Kyūdan-no-taki means “Nine-Stage Falls,” yet visitors on the bridge cannot see all 9 drops at once. The waterfall is made up of several cascades, each about 5–10m high.
Two successive flood years, 1961 and 1962, helped spur Hoheikyo Dam. Sapporo also needed more drinking water and electricity, so the project served 3 purposes; it was completed in 1972, the year of the Sapporo Winter Olympics.
Sapporo’s water bureau says the Toyohira River supplies most of the city’s water, with Hoheikyo and Jozankei dams among its upstream reservoirs. Winter snowmelt helps steady the supply; the bureau says the city has never faced a water shortage.
Hoheikyo Dam’s reservoir is called Jozan Lake—a name chosen at the community’s request. It was named before the later Jozankei Dam was built, so the reservoir had the name first.
Hoheikyo is one of only 2 arch dams in Hokkaido. Its 102.5m curved concrete wall sends water pressure into the strong rock at the sides of the gorge instead of resisting it only with the dam’s weight.
Hoheikyo won the 2014 Japan Dam Award’s “Event” prize after an open day took visitors along the dam’s inspection walkway to watch a sightseeing water release beside its outlet.
