Protected local food
Tokachi Wakaushi
十勝若牛
Lean, juicy beef from young cattle raised in Shimizu, in Hokkaido's Tokachi dairy country. It is tender because of its fine grain, not fat marbling.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 18 March 2025
- Region
- Hokkaido
- Official name in Japanese
- 十勝若牛
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 北海道上川郡清水町
Lean and tender
Wakaushi means young cattle. Unlike Wagyu, whose softness comes from marbled fat, Tokachi wakaushi is tender because its grain is fine. It is a red, lean beef that is juicy and full of flavour when you bite into it. Buyers seek it out as a healthy lean meat, and it sells for more than ordinary dairy-breed beef.
A dairy town
Shimizu town in the Tokachi region of Hokkaido was opened up for farming by Shibusawa Eiichi, the father of modern Japanese business, and Machimura Kinya, who spread modern dairy farming. Dairying has thrived here ever since, and the bull calves born on dairy farms are raised for beef.
Raised young
When Japan opened up to beef imports in 1991, local farmers switched to finishing cattle young, at the age when lean meat has the most flavour, and developed their own efficient way of raising them.
Good to know
- Shimizu is on the Tokachi plain, under an hour from Obihiro, with the Hidaka Mountains as a backdrop.
- Try it as steak or yakiniku at restaurants around Tokachi.
Questions travellers ask
Is it Wagyu?
No. It comes from dairy-breed calves raised young, so it is lean rather than marbled.
Who is Shibusawa Eiichi?
The businessman on Japan's 10,000-yen note, who helped found hundreds of companies and invested in Tokachi farmland.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Coal, steel and port: Hokkaido's northern industrial revolution
- Esashi: the herring town that outshone Edo
- Gyoda: the town of tabi storehouses
- Kitamaebune: the merchant ships that made Japan's port towns rich
- Masuda: a medieval masterpiece of Japan
- Otaru, the heart of Hokkaido: a merchant city saved by its people
- Sacred land of salmon: 10,000 years on the Nemuro Strait
- Takaoka: the castle town that became a merchant town
- The Kamikawa Ainu: living with the kamuy of Daisetsuzan
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.