Sapporo White Illumination

The Sapporo White Illumination lights the centre of Sapporo each winter. It began in 1981 with about a thousand light bulbs on a plaza in Odori Park, and the organizers describe it as the first illumination event in Japan. It has since grown to six venues across the city centre.

Odori Park holds the large symbol objects made of light, a different one on each block of the park. Along Ekimae-dori, the main street from Sapporo Station to Susukino, the trees of the central reservation carry about 270,000 LEDs over roughly 1.5 km. On Minami 1-jo Street, 46 ginkgo trees along both pavements carry about 70,000 LEDs, making an avenue of light about 300 m long.

At Kita 3-jo Plaza, known as Akapla, a lit row of ginkgo trees stands in front of the red-brick former Hokkaido Government Office. The plaza outside the south exit of Sapporo Station has a colour wall that shows changing patterns, with shows of sound and light.

The Munich Christmas Market in Sapporo is held in Odori Park alongside the illumination, with stalls selling wine, Christmas food and Christmas goods.

The 2026 edition

The 2026 edition is the 46th, and two sites are new this year. The red-brick former Hokkaido Government Office is lit in blue. Nakajima Park shows SNOWFISH, a new work by the art group ENESS shown there for the first time anywhere, overseen by the Sapporo International Art Festival (SIAF2027). Its balloon creatures of light, with fish and Hokkaido sea urchins among the motifs, use AI to change their light and sound as people move, and visitors can step inside the large ones.

From 2026 the stretch of Ekimae-dori from Odori to Susukino is lit by a light program. In Odori Park, Winter Blossoms, the object on 3-chome for eight years, gives way to Wonder Streams, a new object on the theme of a spring of light.