National Sanatorium Matsuoka Hoyo-en


Address: 19 Ishie Hirayama Aomori 038-0003 JAPAN
Tel: 017-788-0145


President: Ms YUKIKO FUKUNISHI MD. PhD.,


Access: From Aomori station with a taxi or a bus 15 minutes.
From Aomori Airport with a taxi 20 minutes.


Environment: Our National Sanatorium called “Matsuoka Hoyo-en” is located in thewestern
part of Aomori Cityand access to central Aomori is convenient because it is approximately 4 kilometers
from central part of city to the sanatorium.
The size of site of the sanatorium is 230,000 square-meters and the site is blessed with scenic beauty
of the streets of the city and the Hakkoda Mountains.
About 30% of the site is a grove of broadleaf and conifer trees where you can sometimes see squirrels
and wild birds. However, the environment is severe during winter because the area in which the sanatorium
is locate is known as on of heavy snow zones in Aomori Prefecture.

History: On April 1^st in 1909, our sanatorium was started with 90 beds in Aburakawa Village and it was called
“The Northern Leprosarium of Second Division”. It was established and operated by the local governments
of all the six prefectures of the Tohoku region and the Hokkaido. In that year it was moved to the present
site on October 1^st.

And then the number of beds increased and in 1958 it became 950. Then because of modern medical progress,
the number of patients was decreasing gradually.

In 1941 the operation of the sanatorium was transferred to the Ministry of Health and Welfare of thenation and
the name of the sanatorium was changed into “ National Sanatorium Matsuoka Hoyo-en”.
Today among all the sanatoriums in Japan, “Matsuoka Hoyou-en” is located in the most northern part of the nation.
Since its establishment we have been dealing with exclusively handicapped patients (former Hansen’s disease patients).


Site area: 230,548 square-meters

Building area: 27,106 square-meters