Crown development in canopy trees is a process for the arrangement of leaves into the sunlit spaces by height growth and branch extension. These growth components and the relationship between them influence the arrangement of leaves not only in the current growing season but also in the future according to the patterns of self-shading. In a cold temperate forest in Hokkaido, relationships between height growth and branch extension were investigated for Picea jezoensis and Abies sachalinensis, evergreen conifers with vertical trunks. For the past growth components in five canopy trees of each species, the height growth along the trunk, the number of branches at the trunk top, and the lengths of three- to five-year-old branch axes were measured using vegetative-bud scars. In P. jezoensis, a positive relationship between height growth in a year and the numbers of branches in the following year of height growth was detected, meaning that fewer branches elongate after less height growth. In addition to this, fewer branches had elongated from the trunk top per year in P. jezoensis than in A. sachalinensis. These findings suggest that P. jezoensis canopy trees develop a crown while avoiding self-shading as compared with A. sachalinensis.