Hokkaidō
island of Japan / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hokkaidō (北海道, Hokkaidō), also known as Ezo and Yezo, is a volcanic island in Japan. It is the northernmost of Japan's four main islands.[1]
This article is about the island of Hokkaidō. For the prefecture, see Hokkaidō Prefecture.
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Japan_hokkaido_map_small.png/220px-Japan_hokkaido_map_small.png)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Sounkyo1.jpg/640px-Sounkyo1.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Satellite_image_of_Hokkaido%2C_Japan_in_May_2001.jpg/640px-Satellite_image_of_Hokkaido%2C_Japan_in_May_2001.jpg)
Hokkaidō Prefecture covers the entire island.[2]
About 5,224,614 people live on the island. [3]It is north of Honshu. It is the second largest Japanese island.[4] It has a humid continental climate (Dfa/Dfb in the Köppen climate classification) with cold snowy winters and warm to hot summers.
Agriculture is an important part of the island's economy.