Homemade Ikura in Hokkaido: Raw Sujiko Season, the Official Recipe, Safety Rules and 2026 Prices

The short version: in autumn, Hokkaido sells raw salmon roe by the skein, and the fisheries federation tells you how to turn it into ikura at home

Walk into any Hokkaido supermarket or fish market between September and November and you will see trays of nama sujiko (生筋子): whole skeins of autumn-salmon roe, still in their thin membrane. Locals buy them, break the eggs loose at home and marinate them in soy sauce. The result is ikura (いくら), the salmon roe you pay a premium for on sushi, made in about an hour of work plus fridge time.

This is not folk knowledge you have to hunt for: the Hokkaido Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations (Gyoren) publishes home recipes on its own website. This guide covers the season, where to buy near Sapporo by car, the official recipe, the health ministry's safety rules, 2026 prices, and what is realistic in a hotel kitchen or a suitcase. Facts were checked against the official pages on 10–11 September 2026.

Sujiko vs ikura, and why the calendar matters

Sujiko is the roe sac as it comes out of the fish, a skein of eggs held together by a membrane. Ikura is the loose eggs, usually cured in soy sauce (shoyu-zuke). Raw sujiko is seasonal because it comes from aki-sake (秋鮭), the autumn chum salmon returning to Hokkaido's rivers to spawn; Gyoren's page on autumn salmon gives the run as September and October.

Hokkaido's official schedule for the coastal salmon set-net fishery (valid 2024–2028) opens the earliest districts, the Ishikari coast north of Sapporo and the Erimo–Nemuro stretch in the east, on 30 August; the Okhotsk coast follows on 3–8 September and the Japan Sea coast from Otaru on 3 September. The earliest districts close on 20 November and the last, near Hakodate, on 25 December. So:

• Late August: the first raw sujiko appears.
• September and October: peak season, best choice, widest availability.
• November: still around, but many districts finish during the month.

Where to buy raw sujiko near Sapporo (by car)

Ordinary supermarkets stock raw sujiko in season, priced per 100 g, and that is the easiest option if your accommodation has a kitchen. If you want to talk to a fishmonger and pick up ice for the drive, these two markets have official websites we checked.

Sapporo Jogai Market (札幌場外市場), Sapporo

• Shops open from 6:00; most start closing after 15:00, some stay until 17:00. Open year-round (individual shops vary).
• Free parking (coach parking needs a reservation).
• By car: about 15 minutes from Shinkawa IC or 10 minutes from Sapporo-Nishi IC on the Sasson Expressway. By subway: 7 minutes on foot from Nijuyonken Station (Tozai Line), exit 5.
• The market's FAQ says shops handling fresh seafood have ice packs, ice and styrofoam boxes.

Otaru Sankaku Market (小樽三角市場), Otaru

• Roughly 6:00–17:00, varying by shop; 1 January is the usual holiday.
• About 7 minutes by car from Otaru IC; the market's access page points to a paid 30-car lot beside Otaru Station. On foot it is one minute from JR Otaru Station.
• The market's restaurants serve salmon-and-ikura rice bowls (sake oyako-don), the "let someone else do it" version of this article.

Sapporo to Otaru is about 40 minutes on the expressway. Driving there for one 200 g pack does not add up once you count tolls and fuel; it does if you make a morning of it, eat at the market and buy several skeins. Either way, put the roe in a cooler with ice for the drive back and go straight to the fridge. Time between shop and fridge is the quality.

The official recipe: Gyoren publishes two, and they disagree on the details

Gyoren's site has two home recipes. The ingredients are identical: 200 g raw sujiko, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sake, 1 teaspoon mirin (two servings, per the second recipe). The method differs, and since both are on the same official site, neither is "the right one".

For a first attempt, Recipe B's lukewarm water makes the membrane let go more easily and the steps are easier to follow; Recipe A's longer marinade gives a deeper flavour. Whichever you follow, the sequence is the same: loosen, rinse, drain well, mix with the soy-sake-mirin, chill.

Trying it in your accommodation: what you actually need

This works in an apartment hotel, a guesthouse kitchen or a rented house. It does not work in a hotel room with no fridge; do not attempt it if you cannot keep the roe cold from purchase to plate.

• Equipment: a bowl, a colander, a lidded container and a fridge.
• Seasonings: soy sauce, cooking sake and mirin come in small bottles at any supermarket; salt for the rinse water.
• Quantity: skeins are sold by weight and vary in size, so check the label. Buy one, cure it all, and plan to eat it within a day or two rather than a week, because you are travelling and your fridge is a hotel fridge.
• Serve: over hot rice; convenience-store pack rice and a microwave will do.

Safety: what Japan's health ministry says, and what the recipe does not do

Home-cured ikura is a raw food. Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) publishes a Q&A on anisakis, the parasite behind most raw-seafood food poisoning in Japan, and is explicit about what kills the larvae: freezing at −20°C for 24 hours or more, or heating to 70°C or above (60°C for one minute). It also states plainly that vinegar, salting, soy sauce and wasabi do not kill them.

Two honest notes. The MHLW page lists the fish where anisakis is typically found (mackerel, horse mackerel, saury, squid and others) and the parts (mainly the organ surfaces, moving into the flesh over time); it does not single out salmon roe. But neither the 40°C water in Recipe B nor the soy marinade meets the ministry's kill conditions. If you want certainty rather than custom:

• Buy sujiko that has been previously frozen (ask the shop about temperature and duration), or
• Freeze the finished ikura at −20°C for at least 24 hours before eating. A hotel minibar freezer compartment will not reach that; a proper household freezer may, so check its specification.

If you are pregnant, immunocompromised, or simply not comfortable with raw seafood you prepared yourself, skip the DIY and order ikura at a market restaurant instead.

Taking it home

Within Japan it is easy: market shops pack roe in styrofoam with ice or ship it by refrigerated courier to your next hotel. For an international flight, be realistic. Cured ikura is perishable, the marinade may count as a liquid at security, and many countries restrict or prohibit fish products (Australia and New Zealand very strictly). Check your own country's customs rules before buying. The practical souvenir is commercially packed frozen ikura from the same markets, and even that depends on your destination's rules.

2026: a poor salmon run, and homemade ikura is no longer the cheap option

Hokkaido's research institute forecast in June 2026 that this autumn's salmon return would be 3.645 million fish, 53.1% of 2025, itself the lowest since 1989. Fewer and smaller fish (the 2025 average was 2.91 kg) means less roe.

On 8 September 2026, Sapporo Central Wholesale Market's daily sheet put the modal price for autumn salmon at 2,412 yen per kg for females (the ones carrying roe) against 1,307 and 918 yen for males, with only 195.7 kg of females landed against 4,918 kg of males. The roe is what you pay for. The Hokkaido Shimbun reported that the wholesale price of raw sujiko had risen about fivefold in twenty years, to 9,183 yen per kg in September 2025, and that supermarkets charged 1,382 yen per 100 g in October 2025. At that 2025 shelf price the recipe's 200 g costs about 2,800 yen, before 2026's smaller catch. Expect at least that this autumn, and check the per-100 g label before committing to a whole skein.

Still worth doing? As an experience, yes: eating your own ikura over rice an hour after breaking up the skein is a genuinely Hokkaido autumn thing, for about the price of one good ikura bowl at a market. As a way to save money, no, not any more.

FAQ

When can I buy raw sujiko in Hokkaido?

From about the end of August, with September and October as the peak. The official set-net season opens 30 August in the earliest districts and ends between 20 November and 25 December depending on the coast. Outside those months you will mostly find frozen or ready-cured ikura.

Lukewarm water or salt water to separate the eggs?

Both are official. Gyoren's "how-to" page uses sea-strength salt water with no temperature given; its "recommended recipe" page rinses in salt water and then loosens the eggs in water at about 40°C. The seasoning (2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sake, 1 tsp mirin per 200 g) is identical in both.

Does the soy sauce marinade make it safe?

No. The MHLW states that soy sauce, salt, vinegar and wasabi do not kill anisakis larvae; only freezing at −20°C for 24 hours or more, or heating to 70°C (60°C for one minute), does. If that matters to you, buy previously frozen roe or freeze the finished ikura before eating.

Related reading

• Sapporo to Otaru by Car: Routes, Parking, Seasons and a Half-Day Plan
• Sapporo Autumn Fest 2026: Dates, Food Blocks, Parking and the Drink-Driving Rules

Official sources (Japanese): Gyoren recipe A · Gyoren recipe B · MHLW anisakis Q&A · Sapporo Central Wholesale Market prices · Sapporo Jogai Market · Otaru Sankaku Market.

Before you buy or cook: Wholesale prices change daily and shelf prices vary by shop. Market hours and parking were checked on the official sites on 11 September 2026 and can change without notice. Follow the MHLW guidance above, keep the roe cold at all times, and do not eat raw seafood if you are unwell or in a higher-risk group. Check your country's customs rules before carrying fish products home.

Hokudora (ホクドラ) is a Hokkaido driving and travel site based in Sapporo. More English guides · 日本語版はこちら