Hakodate ramen: what it is, where it is from and what a bowl costs

From

Hakodate, Hokkaido

Soup

salt (clear, low-fat pork-bone stock)

Also

light, clear soup

Checked

18 October 2026, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

• MAFF names salt ramen as Hakodate's local style.
• In Hakodate the broth is a clear, low-fat pork-bone soup with a light taste.
• MAFF notes a theory that a Hakodate Western-style restaurant's 'Nankin soba' in 1884 was Japan's first ramen, but says records are missing and it is uncertain.
• JNTO's Hokkaido page names Hakodate ramen among the island's ramen types.

The government's retail price survey records the price of a bowl of chuka soba (ramen) at ordinary shops every month in 81 cities. In August 2026 it was 879 yen in Hakodate, 6 of 81 from the highest. Tokyo's 23 wards were 620 yen, 73 of 81, so ramen in Tokyo is not more expensive than in most cities. This is an average of the shops in the survey, not the price at a famous shop.

Spending on eating out at ramen shops

7,627 yen a year per household in Sapporo (2023–2025 average; 37 of 52 cities; Japan 8,752 yen)

Ramen shops

1,035 in Hokkaido in 2016, 19.3 per 100,000 people (12 of 47; Japan 14.3)

Spending is from the household survey of two-or-more-person households in 52 large cities, so it is the city's number, not the prefecture's. Ramen shops are the 2016 Economic Census count of businesses classified as ramen shops; some ramen shops are counted with Chinese restaurants, so the real number is higher. Per-person numbers divide by the 2016 population (our calculation).

Airport

Hakodate Airport

Into the city

20 min into Hakodate (quickest way in our airport guide)

• Hakodate Airport: getting into HakodateTrains, buses, fares and lockers