One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Nemuro根室市
The end of the line, and the first light of the day
Nemuro region · The wild east — famed first sunrise, last frontier.
Nemuro city holds mainland Japan's easternmost cape and famed first sunrise, sweet hanasaki crab, and bird-rich lagoons that obsess ornithologists.
Nemuro sits on the peninsula that forms the far eastern tip of Hokkaido, with the Pacific on one side and the Nemuro Strait on the other. Cape Nosappu, at the very end, is the easternmost point of mainland Japan you can drive to, and the JR line that began in Takikawa ends here too. It is a fishing city first: hanasaki crab, saury and kelp are what people come for, together with the wetlands and lagoons that draw birdwatchers from all over the country. Come for the sense of edge, the birds and the crab, not for resort comforts.
- Region
- Nemuro (根室)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~434 km · 6.7 h summer / 7.9 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~464 km · 7.1 h summer / 8.4 h winter
- Best season in Nemuro
- Summer for whales and green pastures, deep winter for sea eagles and drift ice on the strait.
Nemuro at a glance
Drive estimates: straight-line × 1.35, at 65 km/h (summer) / 55 km/h (winter). How we calculate
What to see in Nemuro
Cape Nosappu
納沙布岬
The easternmost cape of mainland Japan, with a lighthouse, a broad viewing tower and the Habomai islands low on the horizon. On a clear morning the sun rises out of the sea here earlier than anywhere else on Japan's main islands.
Lake Furen and Shunkunitai
風蓮湖と春国岱
A shallow brackish lagoon on the Nemuro side of the peninsula, ringed by reeds and sand bars. Swans arrive in autumn and spring, cranes nest in summer, and the wooden trails of Shunkunitai run through a windswept forest of dead and living pines.
Cape Ochiishi
落石岬
A flat headland on the Pacific coast south of the city, crossed by a boardwalk through a wetland of Siberian dwarf pine and sakhalin rhododendron, ending at a small lighthouse above sea cliffs.
Higashi-Nemuro station
東根室駅
The easternmost railway station in Japan, a bare platform on the Nemuro Main Line one stop short of the terminus. Rail travellers make a point of standing on it before walking into town.
Getting to Nemuro
Nakashibetsu Airport is about 1.5 hours by car, Kushiro Airport about 2.5 hours. National Route 44 runs east from Kushiro along the coast, and the JR Nemuro Main Line ends at Nemuro station in the city centre after a slow ride through the wetlands. From Sapporo it is a full day's drive, around seven hours.
Nemuro region: Fly to Nakashibetsu Airport or drive east from Kushiro. Distances are big; plan unhurried days.
When to visit Nemuro
July to October is the best stretch: fog lifts, hanasaki crab is in season and the autumn saury landings begin. Late April to May and October bring migrating swans and geese to Lake Furen. Winter is bitterly windy but clear, and eagles gather along the coast.
What to eat in Nemuro
Hanasaki crab, a spiny red crab found almost nowhere else, is the city's emblem, boiled whole or in a miso soup called teppo-jiru. Autumn saury from Nemuro port, kelp, sea urchin and salmon roe fill the market. The local plate is escalope: butter rice topped with a pork cutlet and demi-glace sauce.
Nemuro in context: the Nemuro region
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Nemuro is where Japan runs out — and where Hokkaido feels wildest. Cape Nosappu is famed as the spot that greets the country's earliest sunrise; the impossibly thin Notsuke Peninsula curls into the sea past ghost forests of dead trees; sea eagles patrol the winter coast and dairy pastures roll inland as far as sight.