Asahiyama Zoo

photo by senryuto · CC BY 3.0

photo by senryuto · CC BY 3.0

In July–August 2004 it overtook Ueno Zoo in monthly visitors: first in Japan.

Opened in 1967, the zoo had come close to closure in 1996 (260,000 visitors a year). From 1997 it introduced ‘behavioural exhibition’ (行動展示): instead of showing the animals standing still, it lets you see them move as they would in the wild – seals swimming in a vertical cylindrical tube, penguins ‘flying’ underwater in a glass tunnel, orangutans crossing a walkway suspended 17 metres up. In July and August 2004 it overtook Ueno Zoo in monthly visitors for the first time (185,461 in July, 321,500 in August), becoming the most visited park in Japan in those months.

Asahikawa's municipal zoo, the northernmost in Japan, housed 633 animals of 101 species as of 1 April 2019. Its turnaround, from almost certain closure in 1996 to the visitor records of 2004–2006, has become a case study cited for the behavioural exhibition method, now imitated by other Japanese zoos.

ℹ️ Summer opening 1 May–15 October 9:30–17:15 (last entry 16:00); 16 October–3 November 9:30–16:30; closed for maintenance 4–10 November; winter opening from 11 November, reduced hours 10:30–15:30 (last entry 15:00). Closed 30 December–1 January. Tickets: adults 1,000 yen, junior high and under free, Asahikawa residents 700 yen; annual pass 1,400 yen.

🚉 Asahiyama Zoo · in front of the station

Sources: city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp · city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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