During the period 1988 to 1991, postmortem brain tissues were examined in 5 cases of pathologically confirmed ovine scrapie in Japan. Although most of tissues were collected from sheep in Hokkaido, some brain tissues originated from sheep raised in other areas. All these sheep which had been transferred from a farm in Hokkaido with a past history of scrapie in Suffolk sheep, died for no obvious reasons. All the cases during the period 1988 to 1991 occurred in Corriedale sheep. It is likely that sheep-to-sheep transmission has taken place in Hokkaido, and that a new of scrapie disease has been spreading in Japan