北海道「道の駅」＋周辺情報を紹介します。

There are 47 prefectures in Japan!
Each prefecture is divided into municipalities.
Current number of municipalities: 1,718 municipalities (792 cities, 743 villages, 183 villages) *1,724 including 6 villages in the Northern Territories.

Quite a few, isn’t it? Niseko is not the only municipality with katakana!
*The names of municipalities written in katakana include Minami Alps City in Yamanashi Prefecture, Huis Ten Bosch Town in Sasebo City in Nagasaki Prefecture, and Koza City in Okinawa Prefecture.

why katakana?

ポロト湖畔に誕生したアイヌコタン

Since kanji came from China, there is a historical background that kanji was applied.
The Ainu people were indigenous people living in Hokkaido, and they decided names by sound.

Hokkaido’s place names are often difficult!
For example, can you read 覚生?

saki

shimpei

Kakusei??

It’s read as “oboppu”

saki

shimpei

too hard!!

The Ainu people didn’t have letters, they only communicated with sounds!

saki

Maybe that’s why there are so many katakana notations.

saki

It used to be Karita Town

ニセコ　羊蹄山

It seems that there was a movement to make Niseko Town as the gateway to the Niseko area.
It is said that the katakana notation was too stylish and unacceptable among people at the time.
From there, how about renaming Karita Station to “Niseko Station” as the gateway to the Niseko area from the tourist industry? and
It seems that there was a proposal, but it seems that Niseko Town was born, saying, “The name of the town is also changed!”