Akabira 赤平市

The name comes from Ainu, but the meaning is uncertain. Three explanations are usually given⁵¹¹:

• Hure-pira (フレピラ), "red cliff" or "red rock". The kanji 赤平 would then be a translation of the meaning, with 赤 ("red") standing for hure.
• Wakka-pira (ワッカピラ), "water cliff". Here the kanji were chosen only for their sound.
• Aka-pira (アカピラ), "ridge cliff". Japanese Wikipedia notes that the first element of this form is unclear.

All three theories share pira ("cliff"). Japanese Wikipedia attributes them to the Hokkaido Government's Ainu place-name list (アイヌ語地名リスト, 2007). That list was no longer online at the address cited, so it could not be checked for this entry⁵.

The district name Hiragishi (平岸) was written ピラケシ or ヒラケシ (Pirakeshi) in the place names in use before the 1936 address reform, when Akabira was still a village⁵. This suggests an Ainu origin, but no meaning is given in the sources consulted.

• Ainu era and archaeology: Ainu people lived in the area, and folk tales such as "The White Snake" (白蛇), "The Snow Woman" (雪女) and Ainu epics (yukar) are associated with it. A club-shaped stone tool from the Naezawa site (奈江沢遺跡) is a city-designated cultural property⁵.
• Edo period to early Meiji: no Matsumae-era trading post (basho) in what is now Akabira was found in the sources consulted. In 1873 Enomoto Takeaki (榎本武揚) surveyed the Sorachi River basin⁵, and coal seams along the Sorachi River were known from early Meiji²³.
• Meiji settlement: land clearing began in 1891⁴. In 1895 the "Kaga group" (加賀団体), settlers from Kaga in Ishikawa Prefecture, moved in and cleared land. Their descendants' visits to Kaga later led to a friendship-city tie²⁴. The same year, the Sorachi Coal Mine (in present-day Utashinai) dug a drainage adit toward the Sorachi River, which the city regards as the first coal work in Akabira¹. A road opened in 1897⁴, and the Shimo-Furano Line railway opened in 1913, which sped up mine development along the line¹.
• Coal boom: the Moshiri Coal Mine (茂尻炭礦) opened in 1918⁴. Akabira Village split from Utashinai in 1922. A gas explosion at Moshiri on 6 May 1935 killed 95 of the 96 men underground; a contemporary newspaper report put the dead and missing at 94⁵. The Toyosato mine opened in 1937, and the Sumitomo Akabira and Akama mines opened in 1938¹. Akabira became a town in 1943 and a city in 1954⁴. Another Moshiri explosion on 1 November 1955 killed 71⁵. The population peaked at 59,430 in 1960⁶.
• Closures: the Sumitomo shaft headframe was finished in 1963 at a cost of about ¥2 billion. At its peak the Sumitomo mine produced 1.9 million tonnes a year and employed about 5,000 people¹. (The tourism association gives 2 million tonnes a year²³.) The Toyosato mine closed on 24 July 1967, with 596 workers laid off. A blasting error caused an explosion at the Yūbetsu Moshiri mine on 2 April 1969 that killed 19⁵, and the mine closed on 27 September 1969 with 1,201 workers laid off. The Hokutan Akama mine closed on 27 February 1973 (555 workers). The Sumitomo Akabira mine, the city's last, closed on 25 February 1994 (407 workers)⁶. This ended about 100 years of coal mining in Akabira¹.
• From mining to manufacturing: the city turned itself into an industrial town⁴. Luggage, veneer, leather and paper factories arrived from the 1970s. The city's four industrial estates cover 79.0 ha, and all 60.9 ha of factory plots have been sold⁶.
• Financial support: in 2008 the Hokkaido Government decided to support the city with low-interest loans of up to about ¥2.8 billion⁵.
• Recent events:
  • 28 February 2015: townspeople set a Guinness World Record by building 2,036 snowmen in one hour during the filming of Fuben na Benriya⁵¹⁹.
  • 20 May 2019: the Tan-Tetsu-Ko story was recognized as Japan Heritage¹².
  • October 2019: the population fell below 10,000. Akabira was the fourth city in Japan to do so, after Utashinai, Mikasa and Yūbari⁵.
  • December 2020: Drive My Car was filmed here over four days. The film won its Oscar in March 2022¹⁸.
  • 2024–2025: a committee for the "red and black" town campaign was formed in 2024, and the Chipu-ta mascot followed in 2025¹¹.

• Location: Akabira is in the middle of Sorachi. The Sorachi River meanders through the city from east to west. Settlement first spread to Moshiri from the Utashinai side, but the town now stretches along the river⁵. The city lies between 43°28′44″ and 43°38′44″N and between 141°58′40″ and 142°09′10″E⁶.
• Transport corridor: the Nemuro Main Line and National Route 38 run parallel to the river. Until the JR Sekishō Line and the Nisshō Pass road over the Hidaka Mountains opened, this was a key route between central and eastern Hokkaido⁵.
• Mountains: Mt. Irumukeppu (イルムケップ山, 864 m) is on the northern boundary with Fukagawa. Other peaks are Mumeizan (無名山, 804 m) and Kamuidake (神威岳, 467 m). Mt. Akabira (赤平山, 364 m) is on the boundary with Utashinai, and the Zuri-yama ridge runs north from it⁵⁶.
• Rivers: besides the Sorachi, the main rivers are the Nae (ナエ川), Horokura (幌倉川), Akamazawa (赤間沢川) and Katsura (桂川)⁵.
• Land use: in 2025 the city had 783 ha of paddy fields, 184 ha of upland fields, 3,311 ha of taxable forest and 443 ha of residential land⁶.
• Forests: the forests in the Kyōwa, Horooka and Elm areas are protected water-source forests. The Elm area also has the Elm Dam, and a mizunara oak in Horooka has a trunk girth of about 480 cm²⁵.
• Parks: no national, quasi-national or prefectural natural park inside the city was found in the sources consulted.
• Climate: no JMA station figures for Akabira were found. The city describes a summer mean of 22.0 °C and a winter mean of −2.3 °C (figures as of March 2014)²⁶. Other points from the city's description²⁶:
  • Summer days can approach 30 °C.
  • First snow falls in mid to late November, and winter snow cover exceeds 1 m.
  • Diamond dust can be seen on very cold mornings.
  • Cherry blossoms peak around Golden Week in early May.

• Employment: the 2020 Census counted 4,045 workers. 182 (4.5%) worked in primary industry, 1,066 (26.4%) in secondary industry (676 of them in manufacturing) and 2,784 (68.8%) in services⁶.

• Manufacturing: in 2021 there were 24 plants with four or more employees. They employed 1,053 people and shipped goods worth about ¥18.8 billion⁶.

• Main employers, with head counts at the end of 2025 and the year each set up in Akabira⁶:

  • Sorachi Tanpan Kōgyō (空知単板工業): veneer and decorative plywood, 135 employees, 1972.
  • Ace Luggage (エースラゲージ) Hokkaido Akabira Factory: suitcases, 105 employees, 1971.
  • Itagaki (いたがき): leather goods, 105 employees, 1982.
  • Hokkaido Chinuya (北海道ちぬや): frozen foods, 95 employees.
  • Nisshō (ニッショウ): parts for building materials, 90 employees.
  • Okada Suisan Hokkaido (岡田水産北海道): dried shishamo and other seafood, 88 employees.
  • Torque Seimitsu (トルク精密工業): metal pressings, 82 employees.
  • Elleair Paper (エリエールペーパー) Akabira Factory: tissue and toilet rolls, 74 employees, 1990.

• Elleair Paper: almost all Elleair products sold in Hokkaido are made at the Akabira factory, including the Hokkaido-only "Namara Tappuri" (なまらたっぷり) large-size range².

• Uematsu Electric (植松電機), 共和町230-50²⁷:

  • Makes battery-powered lifting electromagnets for construction, demolition and recycling sites²⁷.
  • Co-develops the CAMUI hybrid rocket with Hokkaido University²⁷.
  • Built a microgravity drop tower in 2006. A capsule falls about 50 m and gets about 3 seconds of microgravity. The company says it is the only such facility in Japan and one of three in the world. Users include JAXA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and many universities³.
  • Runs rocket classes and school-trip programs. Its monthly "first Saturday" rocket class ends after FY2026²⁷.

• Agriculture: in 2020 there were 72 farm households working 769 ha⁶. Crops in 2025⁶:

  • Rice: 411 ha, 2,380 t.
  • Buckwheat: 171 ha.
  • Wheat: 34 ha.
  • Soybeans: 12 ha.

  Hokkaido's premium Yumepirika rice is grown here²⁸, and flowers are also grown⁵.

• Tourism: attendance in FY2025⁶:

  • Fire festival: 32,000, including 15,000 at the fireworks.
  • Akabira Industrial Festival: 6,200.
  • Ranman Festa: 2,806.
  • Elm Kogen facilities: 144,775 uses, 107,251 of them at the onsen.

• Population trends: nearly half of residents were 65 or older in 2020 (49.6%)⁶. In 2025 there were 17 births against 209 deaths, and 104 more people moved out than moved in⁶. Passenger boardings at JR Akabira Station fell from 38,860 in FY2016 to 23,196 in FY2020⁶.

• Revitalization:

  • Coal heritage is the main tourism theme, alongside Elm Kogen⁵.
  • The "red and black" campaign takes the red of Akabira's name and the black of coal as its colors¹¹. It asks restaurants to create red-and-black menus and paints empty shop shutters red and black²⁹.

• Performing arts and shrines: the Sumiyoshi Lion Dance (住吉獅子舞) is a city-designated cultural property. It is kept up by the Sumiyoshi Lion Dance Preservation Society and is associated with Sumiyoshi Shrine (住吉神社)⁵.
• Museums: the Akabira Coal Mine Heritage Guidance Facility (赤平市炭鉱遺産ガイダンス施設) has about 200 items moved from the former Coal Mine History Museum. Admission is free¹³.
• Public art: the sculpture park in Elm Kogen has ten works by the sculptor Nagare Masayuki (流政之). They include SAKIYAMA, made for the 120th anniversary of Akabira's settlement, and ATOYAMA, Nagarebachi and Korpokkur¹⁶.
• Heritage designations: besides Japan Heritage¹², the tourism association notes that "Coal-mine facilities and lifestyle culture of Sorachi" (空知の炭鉱関連施設と生活文化) has been selected as Hokkaido Heritage²³.

Little about Ainu life in Akabira is documented in the sources consulted. What is known:

• Place names: the city's own name is Ainu⁵¹¹, and older district names such as Pirakeshi (the modern Hiragishi) appear in pre-1936 records⁵.
• Folk tales: legends such as "The White Snake", "The Snow Woman" and Ainu epics (yukar) are associated with the area⁵.
• The black woodpecker: Ainu people called the black woodpecker chipta-chikap and revered it as a god that shows the way. The city mascot Chipu-ta is named after it¹⁰, and the AKABIRA Base tourist shop has a giant black woodpecker entrance for the same reason²⁰.

No Ainu cultural facility in Akabira was found in the sources consulted.

Domestic

• Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture: friendship city, 10 October 1995. The tie began when descendants of the Kaga group, who settled Akabira in 1895, visited their ancestral home²⁴.

International

• Samcheok, Gangwon, South Korea: friendship city, 18 July 1997. Samcheok is also a coal town. Its engineers had come to Akabira to study mining technology since around 1991²⁴.
• Miluo, Hunan, China: friendship city, 30 September 1999. The tie grew out of a citizens' Japan–China friendship group that supported returnees from China and had exchanged visits with Miluo since 1989²⁴.

• Suzui Takayuki (鈴井貴之): actor, director and TV producer, co-creator of Suiyō Dōdeshō. Born in Akabira, he directed Fuben na Benriya here¹⁹⁵.
• Ōtani Naoto (大谷直人): former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan, from Akabira⁵.
• Kuroki Ryō (黒木亮): economic novelist and former Hakone Ekiden runner, from Akabira⁵.
• Ishitobi Hakkō (石飛博光): calligrapher, from Akabira⁵.
• Miyoshi Tetsuo (三好鉄生): rock singer, from Akabira⁵.
• Takashima Taito (髙島泰都): professional baseball player, from Akabira⁵.