---
node: dest_lake_toya
type: destination
slug: lake_toya
title: "Lake Tōya"
lead: "Lake Tōya is a caldera lake in southern Hokkaido that never freezes, with an active volcano on its southern shore. Mount Usu last erupted in 2000, and the ruined buildings from that eruption are preserved as a public trail."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: dest_lake_toya.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:130922_Lake_Toya_Toyako_Hokkaido_Japan03s3.jpg"
image_author: "663highland"
image_license: "CC BY 2.5"
---

## Overview

The caldera formed about 110,000 years ago and Usu grew inside it; the 1943 eruption pushed up an entirely new mountain, Shōwa-shinzan, in a farmer's wheat field over two years, an event a local postmaster documented so carefully that his record became a scientific reference. In 2000 the town was evacuated in time and nobody died, which is why the abandoned road and buried buildings can be walked through. The lake is a hot spring resort and hosted the 2008 G8 summit.

## Highlights

Walk the Nishiyama crater trail through the 2000 eruption zone — cracked highway, a drowned kindergarten, steam still rising. The ropeway up Usu gives the crater and the lake in one view. Fireworks are launched from a boat on the lake every night from late April to the end of October.