In Hokkaido the old provincial names were used for only brief period of time; therefore, contrary to usual cases, in many cases the names without "province' mean existing municipalities such as in the cases of Numuro City, Kitami City, Ishikari city, Teshio-cho; however, in case of Kushiro City, addition of 'city' is required to distinguish it from the homonymous Kushiro-cho as in the case of Tosa City in Kochi Prefecture and Tosa-cho.
北海道の根室市・北見市・石狩市・天塩町等については旧国名を使用していた期間が短かったことから、逆に「国」を付けない場合は現存する自治体の方を指すことが多い（但し、釧路市は高知県土佐市と土佐町のケース同様、同名の釧路町と区別するために「市」を付ける）。