Cheeses of Tokachi
Japan's dairy plain on Hokkaido, where small farms make cheese and a Shintoku farm created the cherry-leaf Sakura cheese.
Made, aged and sold here
Best time: June to September, when the farms are green.
The Tokachi plain in eastern Hokkaido is one of Japan's biggest dairy regions, a wide farmland of potato, wheat and pasture ringed by mountains. Cheese is a newer food in Japan, and Tokachi is where many of the country's small cheese makers are based. A farm community in Shintoku made Sakura cheese, a soft cheese topped with a cherry leaf, which has become a symbol of Japanese cheese.
Cheese in Tokachi
Dozens of small cheese makers work across the plain, making camembert-style and other soft cheeses, Gouda-style wheels, mozzarella and raclette-style cheeses. The cold winters and cool summers suit cattle and ageing rooms. Sakura cheese, made in Shintoku, is a small white-rinded cheese flavoured and decorated with a pickled cherry leaf, a Japanese touch on a European form.
The plain
Obihiro is the main city of Tokachi, known for butadon, pork rice bowls, and for sweets made with local butter, cream and azuki beans. Farm shops sell milk, ice cream and cheese. In winter the plain is cold and snowy, and in summer it is green and open, unlike the dense farming of Honshu.
A trail idea for Tokachi
- Shintoku The town where Sakura cheese is made, at the edge of the mountains.
- Obihiro The main city of the plain, with sweet shops and food stalls.
- A farm shop Taste local milk, butter and cheese along the farm roads.
- Tokachigawa onsen Hot springs on the river near Obihiro.
Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Tokachi Subprefecture" on Wikipedia. Opening hours, markets, caves and tours change; check locally before travelling. If something is wrong, tell us.
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