is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in Sorachi Subprefecture,

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. As of January 31, 2024, the city has an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 6,374, with 3,863

household A household consists of one 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 and the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, which skipped a show in 2007 due to the city's financial crisis. It is also birthplace of Mitsuharu Misawa.

History

The city was founded on April 1, 1943, as a

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

town. When the mines were operating Yūbari had as many as 120,000 people. With the closing of the colliery 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 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

Climate

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population has been rapidly declining since 1960.

Public sector

Police

* Kuriyama Police Station (Main station is Kuriyama Town) **Yubari Police Building (Former Yubari Police Station) **Shimizusawa Police Box, Wakana Police Box **Nambu Residential Station, Numanosawa Residential Station, Momijiyama Residential Station

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 on the Yubari branch of the Sekishō Line, formerly operated by

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

. 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 Japan Railway Journal (August 09 2019) https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2049066/ requiring passengers from Yubari to take a bus to Shin-Yūbari Station. * Sekishō Line (Main Line) : Takinoue - Tomisato - 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 * Yubari Tetsudo

Sister city

* Fushun,

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(since April 1982)

References

External links

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