Hokkaido Topics for 2025. We have summarized what will happen in the year 2025. There will be a lot of irresistible things for Hokkaido, such as redevelopment, the opening of new facilities, and various events. First, January. Ito-Yokado, a supermarket that has expanded to 15 stores since entering Hokkaido in 1975, will withdraw and close all of its stores in Hokkaido in January. The Kotoni store will close on January 5th. The Ario Sapporo store will close on the 13th. Lopia, which is said to be a food theme park, will open in the Kotoni store in May. The Tonden store also became a hot topic. On the 13th, Super Daiichi will open in March at the former site of Ario Sapporo. The supermarket situation surrounding Hokkaido, various stores are opening and price competition is intensifying. In February, the Sapporo Snow Festival will be held. The Sapporo Chuo Ward Complex Government Building will open on February 25th. A health center and a facility that makes use of various elements will open all at once. In one facility, you can experience various things such as administrative services and exhibitions. The latest technology such as road heating using sewage heat is also attracting attention. Sapporo City is aiming to use renewable energy and make the facility disaster-resistant in the event of an earthquake. In March, a large facility will open in front of JR Kitahiroshima Station, the gateway to ES-CON FIELD HOKKAIDO, which is now in its third year of operation. ES-CON FIELD HOKKAIDO is now in its third year of operation. Various developments are underway in the surrounding area, including a commercial facility scheduled to open in May, a new JR station scheduled to open in 2028, apartments, and restaurants. Of particular interest is Tonarie Kitahiroshima, which is scheduled to open in two months at the west exit of JR Kitahiroshima Station. It is a 14-story building with restaurants and shops on the first to third floors, and a hotel with 158 rooms on the fourth to fourteenth floors. The overall picture is becoming clear. "The glass-walled walkway connects from the second floor of Tonarie Kitahiroshima. It connects directly to JR Kitahiroshima Station without getting wet in the rain or snow." (Field Caster Ryutaro Yagi) The walkway leading to JR Kitahiroshima Station allows you to go back and forth without getting wet in the rain or snow. In the future, it is planned to connect to a condominium to be completed in 2025. The "ESCON FIELD HOKKAIDO HOTEL" is perfect for watching baseball games. You can see the stadium from the windows of the rooms, and it is designed to feel like baseball everywhere. There are also plenty of facilities that can be used by non-guests, such as a sauna and observation terrace that can be used for day trips. "We think it will be a base for exchange where people visiting ESCON FIELD and local residents can feel free to come and make various memories." (Nihon ESCON Kazuhiko Kosaku) Construction is currently underway with the aim of opening before the exhibition game in March. It's April, the new fiscal year. "4th Place (4PLA)" will open in the spring on the site of the former 4th-chome Plaza, which was affectionately known as "4PLA". The building is 13 stories above ground and 1 basement floor, and the basement floor is directly connected to the underground shopping mall Pole Town, with a large space with a ceiling height of 5.5m, and a bar with 7 restaurants. The artificial turf area is a great place to take a break between shopping. Following Moyuku Sapporo and Kokonosukino, another new facility directly connected to the station's underground shopping mall will open. Hokkaido is paying close attention to the next-generation semiconductor base "Rapidus". The prototype line will finally be operational from April. Construction is currently underway to create cutting-edge next-generation semiconductors that are 2 nanometers in size, which have not yet been mass-produced in the world. In December 2024, a device that exposes semiconductors to ultraviolet light, called an exposure machine, will arrive at New Chitose Airport from the Netherlands. The plan is to install this in the factory to proceed with the prototype line, and start production two years later, in 2027. It is expected that this will be used in various services such as AI and autonomous driving functions. In May, the National Confectionery Exposition will be held in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido for the first time in over 50 years. And in June, there will be the Yosakoi Soran Festival. A new facility called Lilac Square will open on the former site of Yamaha. In July, the red brick Hokkaido government building, which is currently undergoing renovation work, will be unveiled to the public from the 25th. You can already see the exterior. And in 2025, hotels such as "The Gate Hotel" and "InterContinental Sapporo" will open one after another in the center of Sapporo after the summer. Of these, the "SAPPORO HOTEL by GRANBELL" will open ahead of schedule in March. It is a huge hotel with 605 rooms, the largest in Sapporo city, and can accommodate about 2,000 people. It is a premium type hotel of the GRANBELL hotel group. On the top floor, the 26th floor, there will be a restaurant with a view from 100 meters above ground, and on the 25th floor, there will be a spa with an open-air bath. The decision to open more than a month ahead of schedule was made because the number of inbound tourists is increasing and demand is now high. Compared to Fukuoka City, a prefecture with the same economic scale, Sapporo has a smaller hotel capacity, and Sapporo's capacity varies depending on the season, so if the number of hotels increases, it will be able to attract a variety of customers evenly. Many things are likely to happen in Hokkaido in 2025.