JAPAN has been rocked by a huge earthquake near the city of Sapporo on Hokkaido island, hours after the biggest typhoon in 25 years tore through the region - but where is Hokkaido?

Origins of the Ainu by Gary Crawford The ringing telephone broke the evening silence. It was the fall of 1983, and my research partner, Professor Masakazu Yoshizaki, was calling from Japan.

A railroad through Hokkaido, Japan’s most northern main island. Credit: iStock This isn't how Japan should look. These buildings we are driving past, scattered across the snow-covered fields ...