Kaminokuni Roundabout

This camera watches a roundabout in Kaminokuni, a small coastal town in Hokkaido's Hiyama subprefecture. Roundabouts are still uncommon on Japanese roads, and rural towns like Kaminokuni have been among the places to adopt them since national rules for them were formalized in 2014.

Kaminokuni itself is a quiet farming and fishing town on the Sea of Japan side of southern Hokkaido, a low-key stop between Hakodate and the Hiyama coast.

There is a practical argument for roundabouts in a place like this beyond traffic flow: they need no electricity, so they keep working through the power cuts that heavy snow and earthquakes bring to rural Hokkaido, when signalised junctions simply go dark. The town also holds the main hall of Kaminokuni Hachiman Shrine, built in 1699 and generally counted as the oldest surviving shrine building in Hokkaido.