Yūbari, Hokkaidō

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**Yūbari**
**夕張市**
Yūbari's location in Hokkaidō (Sorachi), Japan.
Location
Country	Japan
Region	Hokkaidō
Prefecture	Hokkaidō (Sorachi)
Physical characteristics
Area	763.20 km² (294.67 sq mi)
Population (as of March 2008)
Total	12,068
Density	15.8 /km² (41 /sq mi)
Location	43°3′N, 141°58′E
Symbols
Tree	Sakura
Flower	Azalea
Flag
Yūbari Government Office
Mayor	Hajime Fujikura
Address	〒068-0492 4-2, Honchō, Yūbari-shi, Hokkaidō
Phone number	0123-52-3131
Official website: Yūbari City

Yūbari (夕張市, Yūbari-shi^?) is a city in Sorachi, Hokkaidō, Japan.

As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 12,068. 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 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 amusement park and museums were up for sale. ^[1] The amusement park has begun to be demolished as of June 2008. ^[2]

The city is famous for melon and the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, which skipped a show in 2006 due to the city's financial crisis.

Roughly half of Yūbari's government officials resigned in March of 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.^[3]

[edit] Notes

^ "Tokyo Cuts Aid, and Hinterland Withers in Japan", article by Norimitsu Onish in the New York Times, January 27, 2007
^ http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200806060089.html
^ "Most high-ranking officials of bankrupt municipal gov't feel no sense of responsibility", article in Mainichi Daily News, March 7, 2007. (Link dead as of late April 2007.)

[edit] External links and further reading

The Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yūbari, Hokkaidō.
Kazama Kensuke. Kazama Kensuke shashinshū: Yūbari (風間健介写真集：夕張) / Kensuke Kazama Photographic Collection: Yubari. Sapporo: Jyuryousya, 2005. ISBN 4-902269-14-7. A collection of Kazama's black and white photographs of Yūbari and its mines after their closure. All text and captions in both Japanese and English.
(Japanese) Toda Reiko. Yūbari tankõbushi (夕張炭坑節, Song of the Yūbari mines). Tokyo: Shõbunsha, 1985. ISBN 4-7949-7009-9. Black-and-white photo documentary of the last five hundred days of mining in Yūbari, a period during which a disaster occurred.
(Japanese) Official website