As of January 31, 2024, the city has an estimated population of 6,374, with 3,863 households.[1] The total area is 763.20 km2. Hemmed in by mountains, Yūbari stretches for 25 kilometers along a mountain valley.
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 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.[3] The amusement park has begun to be demolished as of June 2008.[4]
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.[5]
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
Panorama of Yuni village in Yubari district
The central train station was Yūbari Station on the Yubari branch of the Sekishō Line, formerly operated by JR Hokkaido. However, on March 31, 2019, the Yubari branch line closed after 127 years of operation,[9] requiring passengers from Yubari to take a bus to Shin-Yūbari Station.
Kazama Kensuke. Kazama Kensuke shashinshū: Yūbari (風間健介写真集：夕張) / Kensuke Kazama Photographic Collection: Yubari. Sapporo: Jyuryousya, 2005. ISBN4-902269-14-7. A collection of Kensuke Kazama's black-and-white photographs of Yūbari and its mines after their closure. All text and captions in both Japanese and English.
Toda Reiko. Yūbari tankōbushi (夕張炭坑節, Song of the Yūbari mines). Tokyo: Shobunsha, 1985. ISBN4-7949-7009-9. Black-and-white photo documentary of the last five hundred days of mining in Yūbari, a period during which a disaster occurred.(in Japanese)
