One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Taiki大樹町
Rockets, rivers and cheese on the Pacific edge
Tokachi region · Obihiro food, Tokachigawa Onsen and seasonal gardens on the Tokachi Plain.
Taiki is Japan's 'space town' — a private rocket spaceport launches from its Pacific coast, cheese wheels age in its dairies.
Taiki lies on the southern Tokachi coast where the plain meets the Pacific, and it has made an unusual name for itself as Hokkaido's space town: a spaceport on the coast launches rockets, and an aerospace test range has been here for decades. Inland the Rekifune River runs clear from the Hidaka mountains, good for canoeing and gold panning, while dairy farms feed several cheese makers. A seaside hot spring and a roadside station complete a town that suits families and the curious.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~168 km · 2.6 h summer / 3 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~217 km · 3.3 h summer / 3.9 h winter
- Best season in Tokachi
- Late spring to autumn for gardens and green farmland; seasonal gardens such as Manabe Garden close in winter, when food, onsen and snowy scenery shape the trip.
Taiki 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 Taiki
Hokkaido Spaceport
北海道スペースポート
Rocket launches from the coast south of town, on a site used for aerospace tests since the 1980s. Launch days are announced in advance and viewing areas are set up along the shore.
Rekifune River
歴舟川
One of Hokkaido's clearest rivers, running from the Hidaka range through the town to the sea. Canoe trips, riverside campgrounds and gold panning, a tradition from the settlers' days.
Bansei Onsen
晩成温泉
A town-run hot spring on a bluff above the Pacific, known for its iodine-rich brown water and its view over the open sea. Lake Horokayanto, a lagoon, lies just north, one of a chain of coastal lakes along this shore.
Michi-no-Eki Cosmoll Taiki
道の駅コスモール大樹
The roadside station in the centre, with space-town displays, local cheese, dairy products and seafood from the coast, plus rocket models for the children.
Getting to Taiki
About an hour by car south of Obihiro on National Route 236 and the Obihiro-Hiroo Expressway, which ends at the Churui-Taiki interchange. Tokachi-Obihiro Airport is about 45 minutes. There is no railway; Obihiro is the nearest station. Route 336 follows the coast north to Toyokoro and south to Hiroo.
Tokachi region: Tokachi-Obihiro Airport and JR Obihiro Station are the main gateways. Plan the last stretch separately: the airport bus into the city, a local bus or taxi to the racecourse or onsen, and a car or taxi for gardens outside the centre.
When to visit Taiki
June to September for the river, when the water is warm enough for canoes and gold panning and the coast is fog-cool while inland Japan swelters. Autumn for salmon at the river mouths and the cheese season after summer grazing. Launch dates fall in any season.
What to eat in Taiki
Cheese is the specialty, from several small dairies making aged wheels and fresh types, alongside milk and yoghurt. The coast lands salmon, kelp and shishamo in autumn, and the fields grow potatoes, beans and beet.
Taiki in context: the Tokachi region
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Tokachi is an eastern Hokkaido region of 19 municipalities spread across the Tokachi Plain, a wide farming area that reaches far beyond Obihiro city. Obihiro is the usual base, with butadon pork rice bowls, sweets and banei racing, in which heavy draft horses pull sleds along a course.