Hakkou Gakuen is a school dedicated to agriculture with a curriculum made up of various two-year programs. It is located in an area overlooked from the Hitsujigaoka Observatory in Sapporo. The school has been consistently implementing practical training that focuses on field experience since its establishment in the 5th year of the Showa Era (1930). Matching with the climate in Hokkaido, practical exercises are carried out during the summer, with lectures and experiments held in the winter, which gives students an opportunity to systematically learn about agricultural methods.

The “Hanashobuen Garden” on the school premises, home to an abundance of iris flowers that fully bloom in July, provides a well-known summer site for Sapporo residents. The school’s fruit studies department looks after an assortment of more than 1,700 trees producing a variety of apples, grapes, and prunes, just to name a few.

The vegetable studies department starts cultivation early in the year when snow is still on the ground so that the vegetables can be sold at the school’s direct retail shop, which opens every other day during the period of May to November. During business hours, the direct retail shop is always crowded with people coming to buy fruits and vegetables grown by the students in a very disciplined manner from early spring.