Sapporo Zoo Illegally Installs Signs on National Route 20 Years Ago; Zoo Operating Without Permit Disobeys Administrative Guidance

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:36 JST, February 4, 2025

A company running a private zoo in Sapporo has put up signs for the zoo along a national highway in violation of traffic laws, according to the Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau of the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry.

Success-Kanko Corp. has been operating North Safari Sapporo without a permit in an area where urbanization is restricted in Minami Ward, Sapporo, for nearly 20 years.

The ministry has continuously issued administrative guidance to Success-Kanko asking it to remove the signs. However, the company has refused to do so, citing such reasons as “the signs are necessary because the directions to the zoo are difficult to understand,” the ministry said.

According to the bureau, the firm has used steel pipes and other materials to install a total of five signs on state-owned land along National Highway Route 230.

The largest of the signs is more than 1.5 meters high and 3 meters wide. The signs say such things as “Turn right at the next traffic light” and provide information on the zoo’s events.

National highway routes are considered “national property,” and the Road Law prohibits the installation of commercial signs on land along such roads.

The zoo opened in the summer of 2005, and the bureau confirmed that the signs were illegally installed in 2006.

The bureau said it has repeatedly issued administrative guidance to remove the signs, citing their illegality, but the company has shown no willingness to comply. The bureau is carefully considering whether to forcibly remove the signs itself.

The Sapporo city government plans to order the company to dismantle the zoo under the city planning law but will make a decision after holding a hearing where the company can present its case.

Success-Kanko has stated it would not provide a comment.