is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

located in

Sorachi Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of J ...

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. As of April 30, 2017, the city has an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 8,612, with 5,030

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

s. The total area is 763.20 km². Hemmed in by mountains Yūbari stretches for 25 kilometers along a mountain valley. The city is famous for the

Yubari Melon The is a cantaloupe cultivar farmed in greenhouses in Yūbari, Hokkaido, a small city close to Sapporo. The Yubari King is a hybrid of two other cantaloupe cultivars: Earl's Favourite and Burpee's "Spicy" Cantaloupe. The hybrid's scientific n ...

and the

Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival The , also sometimes called YIFFF, is held in a resort-like environment in the small town of Yūbari on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaidō. From 1990 to 1999, the festival was known as the Yubari International Fantastic Adventure Fil ...

, which skipped a show in 2007 due to the city's financial crisis.It is also birth place of

Mitsuharu Misawa was a Japanese amateur and professional wrestler and promoter. He is primarily known for his time in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and also for forming the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion in 2000. In the early 1990s, Misawa gained fame alongside ...

History

The city was founded on April 1, 1943 as a coal mining town. When the mines were operating Yūbari had as many as 120,000 people. With the closing of the mines in the 1980s, an attempt was made to convert the economic base to tourism. Subsidies were obtained from the central government and huge debts incurred for the building of tourist attractions, but few visitors came. In 2007 the city was in the news due to bankruptcy and the refusal of the national government to bail it out. City services had been severely cut and its

white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...

amusement park and museums were up for sale. The amusement park has begun to be demolished as of June 2008. Roughly half of Yūbari's government officials resigned in March 2007 as part of an attempt to streamline the local fiscal situation. The majority of officials stepping down who responded to a survey conducted by ''Mainichi Shimbun'' say they "feel no sense of responsibility" for the city's financial problems.

Geography

* Mountain : Mount Yūbari * River :

Yūbari River is a river in Hokkaidō, Japan. It is the namesake of Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the E ...

Climate

Education

High school

* Hokkaido Yubari High School * Hokkaido Yubari Special High School

Junior high school

* Yubari Junior High School

Elementary school

* Yubari Elementary High School

Transportation

Rail

The central train station was

Yūbari Station was a railway station on the Sekishō Line in Yūbari, Hokkaido, Japan, operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido). Yūbari Station opened on 1 November 1892. With the privatization of Japanese National Railways (JNR) on 1 April 1987, ...

on the Yubari branch of the

Sekishō Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido). The main Sekishō Line connects in Chitose and Shintoku Station in the town of Shintoku. The name of the line comes from the subprefectures along the route, na ...

, formerly operated by

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to using its official abbreviation of . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a sm ...

. However on March 31, 2019 the Yubari branch line closed after 127 years of operation"JR Hokkaido's Yubari Line: A Beloved Local Line Comes to an End",

NHK World TV NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-ser ...

Japan Railway Journal Japan Railway Journal is a TV program from NHK World TV documenting rail transport in Japan that started broadcasting on March 8, 2015. Overview The program showcases the charm and the cutting-edge technology of rail transport in Japan. New e ...

(August 09 2019) https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2049066/ , requiring passengers from Yubari to take the bus service to Shin-Yūbari Station. * Sekishō Line (Main Line) : Takinoue -

Tomisato file:Gas holder tomisato.JPG, 260px, Chiba Gas LNG storage tank in Tomisato is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 49,914 in 23,753 households and a population density of 930 perso ...

- Shin-Yūbari - (Kaede Passing Loop) * Sekishō Line (Yūbari Branch Line - now closed): Shin-Yūbari - Numanosawa - Minami-Shimizusawa - Shimizusawa - Shikanotani - Yūbari

Road

* Dōtō Expressway : Yūbari IC

Bus

Hokkaido Chuo Bus The is a Japanese bus company operating local and long-distance buses in Hokkaido prefecture, Japan. The company operates routes connecting cities within Hokkaido, as well as local city and chartered bus services. Overview Besides providing bu ...

* Yubari Tetsudo

Sister city

Fushun Fushun (, formerly romanised as ''Fouchouen'', using French spelling, also as Fuxi ()) is a prefecture level city in Liaoning province, China, about east of Shenyang, with a total area of , of which is the city proper. Situated on the Hun Ri ...

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(since April 1982)

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yubari, Hokkaido Cities in Hokkaido