Hokkaido Places

Town Okhotsk Subprefecture

Yubetsu 湧別町

ゆうべつちょう

Yubetsu sits where the Yubetsu River meets the Sea of Okhotsk, on the western shore of Lake Saroma. It was formed in 2009 when the "tulip town" of Kamiyubetsu merged with the fishing town of Yubetsu.1 Every May about 700,000 tulips of some 200 varieties bloom at the Kamiyubetsu Tulip Park. The rest of the year the town lives on Okhotsk scallops, Saroma oysters and dairy farming on land first cleared by tondenhei soldier-settlers.234

Population (2020 Census)
8,270
Area
505.79 km²
District
Monbetsu District (紋別郡)
Official website
www.town.yubetsu.lg.jp

Known for

  • Kamiyubetsu Tulip Park (かみゆうべつチューリップ公園): about 700,000 tulips of some 200 varieties grow on 7 ha of a 12.5 ha park. The Tulip Fair runs from 1 to 31 May.2 The 2026 fair was the 40th.15
  • Lake Saroma (サロマ湖): Hokkaido's largest lake has a shoreline of 92 km. Its western shore is in Yubetsu, including the Ryūgū Kaidō sandbar road and the red Salicornia ("coral grass") marsh at Tsurunuma.161718
  • Scallops and oysters: young scallops are raised in Lake Saroma and then released into the Sea of Okhotsk. The lake's farms also grow oysters.3 The 2023 Fishery Census counted 123 scallop-farming and 24 oyster-farming businesses in the town.10
  • Tondenhei heritage: 399 soldier-settler households arrived in 1897–98.11 Hokkaido Heritage calls the Furusato-kan JRY museum the largest tondenhei museum in Japan.19
  • Dairy country: there were 20,383 dairy cattle on 97 farms in February 2026.10 Dairy accounts for about ¥13.2 billion of the town's estimated ¥18.8 billion farm output.20
  • Drift ice and the ice boom: drift ice reaches the coast in late January. A floating barrier at the lake mouth, which the town calls the world's first ice boom, stops the ice from wrecking the lake's aquaculture gear.21
  • Saroma Lake 100 km Ultramarathon: this late-June race starts in Yubetsu and runs round the lake.22 Men's and women's 100 km world records have been set on the course.23

Sights & activities

Nature & scenery

  • Ryūgūdai Observation Park (龍宮台展望公園): the place to see drift ice up close from late January, beside the lake-mouth ice boom. Never climb onto the ice.21
  • Ryūgū Kaidō (龍宮街道): about 12 km of road out to Sanrihama past pastures, wild roses and reed beds.17 On the way, the Sagi-numa flower meadow (サギ沼原生花園) has day lilies, beach roses and irises.61
  • Sango-misaki / Tsurunuma (サンゴ岬・鶴沼原生花園): a small suspension bridge from the parking lot leads into the Salicornia marsh, which turns red in mid-September.18
  • Skunk-cabbage colony (水芭蕉群生地): near the Ailand Yubetsu roadside station on Route 238, at its best in mid-April.62
  • Gokazan Park (五鹿山公園) and Misonoyama Park (御園山公園): hilltop views of Lake Saroma and the Sea of Okhotsk. Gokazan has spring cherries and autumn colors.6361
  • Okhotsk Lilac Road (オホーツク・リラ街道): about 600 lilacs and 1,000 Ezo mountain cherries along 2.2 km of old railway bed.64

Onsen

  • Kamiyubetsu Onsen Tulip-no-yu: a public hot-spring bathhouse at the roadside station of the same name (see below).65

Museums & heritage

  • Furusato-kan JRY (ふるさと館JRY): tondenhei museum next to the Tulip Park (Kita-Heison 1-ku 588). It has an original 1897 soldier's house, rebuilt inside the museum,419 and portraits of 382 soldiers by Mahori Hōgen. Open 9:00–16:00, closed Mondays and 30 December–4 January. Adults ¥400.4
  • Yubetsu Kyōdokan (湧別町郷土館): free. It shows the Naumann's elephant molar, local pottery and stone tools, and fishing history. It is unheated in winter.31
  • Kamiyubetsu Centennial Park (上湧別百年記念公園): Nakayubetsu Station's platform, rails, a snowplow and two guard's vans.66
  • Keroji Transport Park (計呂地交通公園): the old Yūmō Line station on Route 238, with a C58 steam locomotive and a 300 m boardwalk to the lake. From May to October you can sleep in the stationmaster's house (¥500) or a passenger car (¥300).67
  • Shibunotsunai pit dwellings: hollows across open pasture. Cattle graze there from May to October, so contact Furusato-kan JRY before visiting.30

Outdoor & seasonal activities

  • Tulip Park: an electric bus, the "Chūpitto-gō", circles the park. There is a 225 cm Dutch clog, and you can dig up tulips at ¥100 a stem.55
  • Family Ailand YOU (ファミリー愛ランドYOU): an amusement park with 18 rides, next to the Ailand Yubetsu roadside station. It includes a Ferris wheel 100 m above sea level that the town calls Japan's northernmost.22 Entry is free and a day pass costs ¥1,600. The 2,400 m Ikoi no Mori forest trail is next door.68
  • Gokazan Ski Area (五鹿山スキー場): four runs (the longest 1,000 m) with night skiing, open early January to mid-March. A day pass costs ¥1,500.69
  • Camping: Sanrihama (三里浜キャンプ場) is on the sandbar between lake and sea and has 47 auto sites and 10 bungalows.38 Gokazan (五鹿山公園キャンプ場) has 18 log cabins.70
  • Park golf: Gokazan has 54 holes certified by the International Park Golf Association.63

Food experiences

  • Okhotsk Yūsenkan (Minato-machi 45-2): open 10:00–16:00. It closes on Tuesdays, and on Mondays and Tuesdays from January to March.41
  • Restaurant Saiko: scallop dishes with lake views (see below).71
  • Shokujidokoro Oyaji (食事処 親爺): hand-made soba from flour it mills itself.72

Roadside stations (Michi-no-Eki)

Kamiyubetsu Onsen Tulip-no-yu (道の駅かみゆうべつ温泉チューリップの湯)

  • Location: Nakayubetsu Naka-machi 3020-1, on Hokkaido Route 712 (緑蔭中湧別停車場線).485 It stands on the former Nakayubetsu Station site, opposite Bunka Center TOM and the railway museum.48
  • Hours: the onsen is open 10:00–22:00, or 11:00–21:00 from December to March. Last entry is one hour before closing. It is closed 1–2 January and for maintenance each October.65 The Michi-no-Eki site lists shop hours of 10:00–21:00 (11:00–20:00 in winter).48 As of September 2026 — check before visiting.
  • Onsen: a sulfur-bearing sodium bicarbonate spring. Japanese-style and Western-style bathhouses swap between men and women daily. Between them they have a jacuzzi, an outdoor bath, a lying bath and a waterfall shower. The sauna has a Finnish auto-löyly stove and holds 9. A family bath can be reserved. Adults ¥650, children ¥300 (from April 2024). People with tattoos are not admitted.65
  • Shops & products: tulip manjū and other tulip sweets, ramen made with the onsen water, ice cream, canned asparagus, and local delicacies.4865
  • Food: the town lists Shokujidokoro Chūrippu as open 11:00–14:00 and 17:00–21:00, with 60 seats; the Michi-no-Eki site instead lists 11:00–21:00 (11:00–17:00 from December to March), so check before visiting.4748 It serves a Yūbetsu-gyū steak set (¥1,530), a grilled-scallop set (¥1,230) and thick salt udon (¥920).47 The Michi-no-Eki site recommends the scallop curry, Okhotsk fry set and bibimbap ramen.48
  • Facilities:
    • Parking for 8 large vehicles and 414 cars.48
    • A 50 kW quick EV charger, available 24 hours. Drivers without an eMP card can register free with the Eco-Q-den service (エコＱ電) via the QR code on the charger and pay ¥275 per 15 minutes by credit card.73
    • Wi-Fi, a nursing room, a kids' space and seminar rooms.4865
    • The indoor toilets are not open 24 hours. After closing, use the outdoor toilet by the railway museum (closed in winter) or the one in the TOM bus waiting room.4865
  • Notes: the station was registered on 22 April 1993 as station No. 13 in Hokkaido.48 It began as "Michi-no-Eki Nakayubetsu" around the railway museum and was later rebuilt around the onsen.34 The stamp can be used during opening hours only.48 In summer the East Hokkaido Seaside Express bus (Monbetsu–Utoro) makes a rest stop here.74

Ailand Yubetsu (道の駅愛ランド湧別)

  • Location: Shibunoshi 6, on National Route 238, overlooking the western shore of Lake Saroma. It is next to the Family Ailand YOU amusement park and the Ikoi no Mori forest.7568
  • Hours: the You Shop is open 9:30–17:00 and Restaurant Saiko 11:00–16:00 (last order 15:30). Both close on Mondays, or on Tuesday when Monday is a holiday.6871 The Michi-no-Eki site also lists a year-end closure from 30 December to 4 January. The amusement park closes in winter.7571 As of September 2026 — check before visiting.
  • Shops & products: the You Shop (YOUショップ) on the first floor of the "You Plaza" building sells processed scallop products, other local specialties, and accessories.7568
  • Food: Restaurant Saiko (彩湖), on the second floor, looks out over Lake Saroma. It has 102 table seats and four tatami rooms. Dishes include a scallop-fry set (¥1,200), scallop-fry curry (¥1,200), a hokke-fry set (¥1,000), a scallop rice bowl, Okhotsk ramen and sauce katsudon.7175
  • Facilities:
    • 210 parking spaces (5 large, 203 standard, 2 accessible).68
    • 24-hour accessible toilets.68
    • Wi-Fi (ask the shop staff) and tourist information.6875
    • Credit cards and other cashless payments are accepted.75
    • No EV charger is listed.75
  • Notes: registered on 17 April 1998 as station No. 52. The stamp can be used 24 hours a day, even on closing days.75 The best views of Lake Saroma are from the amusement park's Ferris wheel, which stands 100 m above sea level.75

Getting there & around

  • Rail: no trains run in Yubetsu today. The nearest station is JR Engaru (遠軽駅) on the Sekihoku Line, about 15 km and 15 minutes by car from the Tulip Park area. Limited Express Okhotsk trains from Sapporo stop there.7677
  • Road: from Sapporo it is about 270 km (about 3½ hours), and from Asahikawa 140 km (about 2 hours). Leave the Dō-Ō Expressway at Pippu Junction (比布JCT) and take the toll-free Asahikawa–Monbetsu Expressway.76 The expressway currently ends at Engaru IC, about 25 minutes from the Tulip Park.43 Its extension to a Kamiyubetsu IC is under construction.37 National Routes 238 (along the coast and Lake Saroma) and 242 (Engaru–Kamiyubetsu) cross the town.5 Kitami is about 70 km away (about 1¼ hours).76
  • Bus: Hokkaido Kitami Bus and Hokumon Bus run a Monbetsu–Yubetsu–Engaru route.78 The Tulip Park bus stop is a three-minute walk from the gates.43 Town buses serve Fumi, Asahi–Kawanishi, Sanrihama, Keroji–Nakayubetsu and Nakayubetsu–Saroma.78 The Engaru-gō highway bus links Sapporo with Engaru.76
  • Air: Okhotsk Monbetsu Airport (Tokyo Haneda flights) is about 30 km and 30 minutes away. Memanbetsu Airport (flights to Sapporo and Tokyo) is about 90 km and 1½ hours away.76
  • Taxis: Yūbetsu Hire and Nakayūbetsu Hire.5

Practical tips

  • When to go: May is the peak, for the Tulip Fair. The park is open 8:00–18:00; adults pay ¥600, and pets are not allowed in the paid area.2 Other good times are mid-April for skunk cabbage,62 late June for the ultramarathon (expect busy roads),22 mid-September for the red Salicornia18 and late January onward for drift ice.21
  • Visitor information: the Yubetsu Tourism Association is in Bunka Center TOM (8:30–17:10; tel. 01586-8-7611).79
  • Brown bears: in 2026 bears or their signs were reported from April to September in Kaisei, Barō, Kami- and Higashi-Barō, Keroji, Shibunoshi, Fumi, Kawanishi, Nakayubetsu Kita-machi and the Heison districts. They are most active in the morning and evening. Report sightings to the town on 01586-5-3763.8081
  • Shellfish: toxins can halt scallop sales, as happened at the July 2026 festival. Buy from licensed sellers such as Yūsenkan.57
  • Winter: do not walk on the drift ice.21 The record low here is −27.6°C.40
  • Seasonal closures: check opening seasons before you go. Family Ailand YOU is open late April to mid-October, Sanrihama campground 20 July–20 August, and the Keroji overnight stays May–October.683867
  • Lodging: there are few places to stay. One is the public Lake Palace (レイクパレス) by Lake Saroma, from ¥5,000 a night room-only; a lodging tax is extra.82

More about Yubetsu

At a glance
Field Details
Type Town (町)
Subprefecture Okhotsk (オホーツク総合振興局)
District Monbetsu District (紋別郡)5
Population 2020 Census: 8,270 people in 3,692 households, down 10.4% from 9,231 in 2015.6 2025 Census (preliminary): 7,538, a further −8.9%.7 Resident register: 7,748 people in 4,077 households at the end of August 2026.8 The register showed 10,276 people at the 2009 merger.1
Area 505.79 km² (GSI, 1 April 2026). This is a reference value, because GSI notes that parts of the boundaries of Monbetsu, Engaru and Yubetsu are not yet fixed. 44.90 km² of Lake Saroma is counted as part of Yubetsu.9
Density About 15.3 people/km² (the town's January 2026 figure). The 2020 Census density was 16.4/km².106
Municipal history 1882: first farm clearing. The town counts this as its founding (開基).111 1897: Yubetsu Village office (湧別村戸長役場) established. 1910: the village splits into Kamiyubetsu (上湧別村) and Shimoyubetsu (下湧別村). 1919: Engaru splits off from Kamiyubetsu. 1953: both become towns, and Shimoyubetsu takes the name Yubetsu.5 5 October 2009: Kamiyubetsu and Yubetsu merge as a new town named Yubetsu. The town says this was the only merger in Hokkaido under Japan's 2005 municipal-merger law.1
Neighboring municipalities Monbetsu, Kitami, Engaru and Saroma. The Sea of Okhotsk lies to the north and Lake Saroma to the east.5
Symbols Flower: tulip. Tree: onko (オンコ), the Hokkaido name for the Japanese yew. Both were adopted on 1 May 2011 after a residents' survey. Before the merger, Kamiyubetsu's flower was the tulip and Yubetsu's was the Ezo-murasaki azalea. Both towns had the onko as their tree.12 No town bird was found.
Mascot Chūpitto (チューピット) is a tulip fairy, and his little sister is Lip-chan (リップちゃん). Both "live" in the Tulip Park and appear there on weekends during the fair.13 Local superheroes, the Sangyō Rangers (湧別戦隊・産業レンジャー), fight "Hitodeman", a starfish who wants all of Yubetsu's scallops for himself.14
Official website https://www.town.yubetsu.lg.jp/ (Japanese)

Name origin

The town is named after the Yubetsu River (湧別川). Until 1910 the whole river basin formed a single Yubetsu Village. In 1953 Shimoyubetsu, the village at the river mouth, dropped the 下 ("lower") from its name to become Yubetsu Town. In 2009 the merged town kept "Yubetsu" for historical reasons.5

The river name is Ainu, but its meaning had already been forgotten when researchers recorded it, so several readings compete:24

  • yu-pet ("hot-spring river"): favored by Uehara Kumajirō, who notes that Hata Awagimaro and Matsuura Takeshirō took the same view. There are hot springs upriver at Setose, Murii and Shirataki.25
  • yupe ("sturgeon"): Nagata Hōsei's reading.25
  • ipe-ot-i ("place where fish are plentiful"): this reading appears in the national-railway station-name book. The town's own history also favors it, noting that there is no story of sturgeon ever living in the river.25

The Hokkaido Government's Ainu place-name list rates the etymology at confidence level C and notes that the theories are hard to choose between.25

Other Ainu names in the town include the following:

  • Barō (芭露): from par or paro, "(its) mouth". Yamada Hidezō thought this was the biggest river mouth in the area.26
  • Mt. Keroji (計露岳, 408.5 m): named after the source of the Keroji River, from kere-oci, "scraped place".5
  • Ponto beach (ポント浜): from pon-to, "small pond".27

History
  • Prehistory: Yubetsu had 57 registered archaeological sites as of April 2022.28 A 1956 Hokkaido University dig on Higashi 3-sen produced what the town history calls Japan's first detailed report on a pre-Jōmon (blade-arrowhead, 石刃鏃) site.29 The Shibunotsunai pit dwellings (シブノツナイ竪穴住居群), a Hokkaido historic site, have 530 house pits. More than half date from the Satsumon period, about 1,000 years ago.30 A Naumann's elephant molar about 30,000 years old was found at Higashi-Barō in 1998.31
  • Edo period: a copy said to be of the Genroku-era provincial map (元禄御国絵図) marks "Yūbechi" (ユウベチ), and the Matsumae register lists it as the head of seven settlements on the Kitami coast.5 The coast belonged to the Sōya trading post (宗谷場所), opened in 1685 and run from 1808 by the Ōmi merchant Fujino Kihei. An 1862 census counted 28 Ainu households (121 people) at Yūbetsu.11
  • Meiji settlement: in 1882 Hanzawa Shinkichi (半沢真吉) left the Abashiri district office to farm at Yubetsu, which the town counts as its founding. From 1894 group settlers arrived from Kōchi, Hiroshima, Tokushima, Rebun–Rishiri and elsewhere. The Gakuden Farm (学田農場) brought tenant farmers from Niigata and Yamagata in 1897–98.11
  • Tondenhei: the South and North Yubetsu soldier villages (南・北湧別兵村) were the 4th and 5th companies of the 4th Battalion. They were settled in 1897,32 with 200 households that year and 199 more in 1898.11 Peppermint (hakka) later became the big cash crop, and the town history calls this era the "peppermint kingdom".433
  • Railways: Nakayubetsu Station opened in 1916 and became the junction of the Nayoro Main Line and the Yūmō Line (湧網線). The Yūmō Line closed in March 1987 and the Nayoro Main Line in May 1989.34
  • 1942 mine disaster: on 26 May 1942 a drifting naval mine exploded at Ponto beach during preparations for a public demolition, with crowds gathering to watch. 106 people were killed outright and 6 more died later of their injuries, 112 in all.527
  • Tulips: in 1957, 54 Kamiyubetsu farms began growing Dutch tulip bulbs to earn more from their small tondenhei plots. By 1960 they led Hokkaido in output (330,000 bulbs) and exported to Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco. A Dutch price cut in 1966 ended the trade. A seniors' garden planted in 1975 grew into the Tulip Fair (first held 1987) and a town park (1988).35
  • Merger era: Kamiyubetsu and Yubetsu merged on 5 October 2009.1 Mayor Katō took office in November 2025 pledging to freeze a plan for a new consolidated town hall. The town formally cancelled the project at the December 2025 council session and ended the design contract at the end of January 2026.36 A 13.8 km extension of the Asahikawa–Monbetsu Expressway from Engaru to Kamiyubetsu was approved in 2021.37

Geography & climate
  • Landforms: Yubetsu faces the Sea of Okhotsk and covers the lower Yubetsu River and the western side of Lake Saroma.5 The Yubetsu River rises on Mt. Tengu in Engaru, runs 87 km and reaches the sea at Minato-machi.24 Inland the ground rises to low hills. 文山 (437.1 m; romanized reading unverified) is the highest named peak, although an unnamed 525 m summit on the Monbetsu border is higher.5
  • Lakes and coast: Lake Saroma is Hokkaido's largest lake and Japan's third largest. It is a brackish lake with a 92 km shoreline.16 It lies within Abashiri Quasi-National Park (網走国定公園).1 A long, narrow sandbar separates it from the Sea of Okhotsk.38 On the Yubetsu side, the Ryūgū Kaidō road runs about 12 km from the town out to Sanrihama. The writer Ōmachi Keigetsu likened the bar to "a road to the Dragon Palace" (龍宮).17 Shibunotsunai Lake (2.63 km²) lies on the undetermined border with Monbetsu.9
  • Protected nature: the Salicornia colony at Tsurunuma (鶴沼のアッケシソウ群落) covers about 20,000 m² on the Sango-misaki cape. It was designated a Hokkaido Natural Monument in 1957 and turns red in mid-September.18
  • Climate: the Yubetsu weather station (AMeDAS) records the following 1991–2020 normals: annual mean 6.1°C, February mean −6.8°C, August mean 19.3°C, and only 750.7 mm of precipitation a year.39 The record high is 38.5°C, set on 26 May 2019. The record low is −27.6°C, set on 17 February 1978.40 The town describes itself as low in rain all year with relatively little winter snow.1 Drift ice usually arrives in late January.21

Economy & industry
  • Structure: dairy and field-crop farming, coastal and aquaculture fishing, and forestry are the core industries.1 About a third of workers (1,482 of 4,398 in the 2020 Census) were in agriculture, forestry or fisheries.10
  • Farming: estimated 2024 farm output was ¥18.8 billion. Dairy accounted for ¥13.19 billion (¥11.79 billion of it raw milk), vegetables for ¥3.69 billion and beef cattle for ¥1.25 billion.20 In February 2026 the main crops were autumn-sown wheat (604 ha), onions (519 ha), sugar beet (354 ha) and pumpkins (109.1 ha). Grass and feed corn cover about 6,900 ha, feeding 20,383 dairy cattle and 1,055 Japanese Black beef cattle.10 Two farm co-ops serve the town, JA Yūbetsu-chō and JA Enyū.5
  • Fisheries: the 2023 Fishery Census counted 185 fishing businesses, including 123 scallop farms and 24 oyster farms.10 There were 605 fishery workers, 344 boats and 4 fishing ports.20 The town's listing for the cooperative's shop says its dried scallop adductors won first place in a national quality assessment five years running.41
  • Tourism: Hokkaido counted 490,000 visits in FY2025, 122,200 of them in May, the tulip month. Only 8,730 were overnight stays.42 Tulip Park attendance ran at roughly 59,000–81,000 a year in 2009–2018, according to council figures compiled on Japanese Wikipedia.43
  • Depopulation and revitalization: the population fell more than 10% between the 2015 and 2020 censuses and another 8.9% by 2025.67 Furusato nōzei donations hit a record ¥316.6 million (17,452 gifts) in FY2025. The money funds free daycare, the Tulip Park, festivals and a "daycare study-abroad" (保育園留学) program aimed at attracting new residents.44

Local specialties
Specialty Category Details & where to get it
Okhotsk scallops (ホタテ) Seafood Young scallops grow in Lake Saroma for about a year and are then released into the sea.3 Okhotsk Yūsenkan (オホーツク湧鮮館), the fisheries cooperative's shop, sells fresh scallops from April to early December. It also sells dried adductors (干し貝柱), soft kaibashira and scallop soy sauce.41
Saroma Lake oysters (カキ) Seafood One-year oysters are small and sweet; two-year oysters are large. Steamed is the usual way to eat them.3 Yūsenkan sells one-year oysters as COYSTER (October–March) and winter oysters as Ryūgū-gaki (龍宮かき).4145 Fujiya Sea Frontier at Tōeitoko also sells shell-on oysters and scallops.46
Hokkai shima-ebi (ホッカイシマエビ) Seafood A striped shrimp caught in Lake Saroma in a short summer season under catch limits. It is boiled and frozen straight away.3 Yūsenkan also sells hair crab and sea urchin in spring, pink salmon (karafuto-masu) in summer and salmon in autumn.41
Yūbetsu-gyū (ゆうべつ牛) Beef The town's brand beef. A steak set costs ¥1,530 at Shokujidokoro Chūrippu in the Tulip-no-yu roadside station.47
Dairy and onions Dairy / crops Milk, cheese and ice cream from local milk.3 Onions are the biggest vegetable crop (519 ha), followed by pumpkins and sweet corn.10
Tulip sweets Sweets Tulip manjū (チューリップまんじゅう) and other sweets made with tulip, sold at Tulip-no-yu along with canned asparagus.48
Okhotsk salt and salt ramen Brand product Tsurara Shop Shibare (つららSHOPシバレ) makes fresh salt, miso, soy and salmon-flake tonkotsu ramen with its own "Okhotsk salt".49
Ezo deer venison Game Mori no Hito (森のひと) ages and sells venison from deer shot in Yubetsu, online only.50
Hand-carved woodware Craft Tama Kōgei (たま工芸) carves mugs, plates and wooden scallops from Okhotsk timber. Mugs start at ¥11,000.51
Furusato nōzei gifts Gifts The most popular gifts are frozen scallop adductors (玉冷), shell-on Saroma oysters and Ezo venison.52

Culture & festivals
Event When Highlights
Yubetsu Genya Okhotsk Cross-Country Ski Race (湧別原野オホーツククロスカントリースキー大会) Late February A one-way race down the Yubetsu valley from Shirataki in Engaru to Bunka Center TOM in Nakayubetsu.53 Courses go up to 80 km, which the town calls the longest in Japan.22 In 2026, the 40th race, poor snow meant the Shirataki–Engaru section could not be groomed, so the 80 km course was cut to 24 km.54
Tulip Fair (ゆうべつチューリップフェア) 1–31 May About 700,000 tulips, at their best from mid to late May, with street performers, a street organ and dig-your-own tulips.255
Gokazan Park Festival (五鹿山公園まつり) 2nd Sunday of May A cherry-blossom party with Genghis Khan barbecue, beer and bingo.22
Saroma Lake 100 km Ultramarathon (サロマ湖100kmウルトラマラソン) Late June 100 km and 50 km races starting in front of Spark Yubetsu (すぱーく湧別).22 It was first run as a trial race in 1986, and 2026 was the 41st edition.2356
Ebi-Hotate Ryūgū Festival (湧別サロマ湖えびホタテ龍宮まつり) July At the Sanrihama campground, with shrimp-eating races, a "Dragon Palace turtle-pulling" contest and seafood sales. The 38th was on 19 July 2026.57
Tonden Tanabata Festival (屯田七夕まつり) Early August Opens with a tondenhei parade and ends with sky lanterns and fireworks. The 11th was on 2 August 2026 in Kamiyubetsu Centennial Park.5822
Yubetsu Industry Festival (湧別町産業まつり) Late September Farm and seafood stalls, scallop hama-yaki (three for ¥500), Yubetsu nabe (¥200) and a "human scallop pull" contest. The 44th was on 23 September 2026.59

Other annual events include a New Year karuta tournament that has run for more than 50 years, the Yubetsu skating championships in early February on the town's 300 m ice rink at Barō, a hill race up the Gokazan ski slope in early September, and the Ueno Cup youth judo tournament in October, named after the Ueno sisters.22

Museums, temples and local arts:

  • Bunka Center TOM (文化センターTOM): built on the old Nakayubetsu Station site. It has a 752-seat hall, a library and a Manga Museum.60 The museum shows original art by Monkey Punch and Igarashi Yumiko and entries from the Okhotsk International Manga Award.48
  • Hōju-ji (宝珠寺): stop 25 on the Hokkaido 33 Kannon pilgrimage.5
  • Kōryō Taiko (湖陵太鼓): drumming by local students, performed at the industry festival.59

Ainu heritage

Before the Meiji era Yubetsu was an Ainu settlement area on the Sōya trading-post coast. A census of 1862 recorded 28 Ainu households (121 people) at Yūbetsu.11 Ainu names survive in Yubetsu, Barō, Keroji and Ponto, among others.252627 The town's centennial history has a chapter on the Yubetsu Ainu and on Ainu place names.29 However, no Ainu cultural facility or living tradition specific to the town was found. Older layers of local history can be seen at the Shibunotsunai pit dwellings (Satsumon period) and in the Okhotsk-culture finds from Kawanishi, which are on display at the Kyōdokan museum.3031

Sister & friendship cities
  • Whitecourt, Alberta, Canada: friendship agreement signed 17 July 1998, following student exchanges that began in 1991 (originally with Kamiyubetsu).835
  • Selwyn, Canterbury, New Zealand: signed 14 July 2000, following exchanges with Darfield High School from 1992 (originally with Yubetsu).835
  • Shinshinotsu, Hokkaido: signed 29 September 2003. Thirty settlers from Kamiyubetsu moved to Shinshinotsu's Shin'yū district in 1952–54.83

Notable people
  • Ueno Masae (上野雅恵): judoka and Olympic 70 kg champion in 2004 and 2008. She was born in Asahikawa and grew up from age 2 in Yubetsu, where her parents ran a dojo.84
  • Ueno Yoshie (上野順恵): judoka, born in Yubetsu in 1983, and 63 kg bronze medalist at the London 2012 Olympics.85
  • Sagawa Yukiyoshi (佐川幸義): master of Daitō-ryū aiki-jūjutsu, born in Yubetsu in 1902.86
  • Kaneko Kimi (金子きみ): writer and tanka poet, born in Yubetsu to settlers from Yamagata.87

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