01218 ／ あかびらし
HokkaidoA tower stands over a shaft 650 m deep.
Sumitomo Akabira shaft tower01 ／ Stairs
Zuriyama Observation Plaza is a slag heap built of rock brought out of the Hokutan Akama Coal Mine, 197.65 m above sea level with an average slope of 18 degrees. The city calls its stairway the largest of its kind in Japan at 777 steps, and says the summit looks over the city, Mt. Ashibetsu and Mt. Tokachi.
02 ／ Coal seam
The Sorachi River Coal Seam Outcrop is one of Akabira's component cultural properties of the Japan Heritage story Tantetsuko. The city says that from the parking space, a path along the river leads to a sign and an observation deck for the outcrop. The plaza is on the riverbank.
03 ／ River
The Akabira Citizens' Charter, enacted in 1974, opens by calling citizens those “nurtured by the Sorachi River and developed by coal.” The city writes that the closure of the Sumitomo Akabira Coal Mine in 1994 ended a coal-mining history of about 100 years.
Now and 1974–78. Tap a photo to zoom in.
Wide (about 6 km across)
Close (about 1.5 km across)
Now (shot September–October 2009)Shot 1974–78
Source: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) GSI Tiles（全国最新写真（シームレス）／国土画像情報（第一期：1974〜1978年撮影））
Living here
The city has three stations on the JR Nemuro Main Line: Akabira, Moshiri and Hiragishi, all listed in the JR Hokkaido timetable for October 2026. The city's access page directs visitors from Sapporo Station on the Hakodate Main Line to Takikawa Station, then on the Nemuro Main Line to Akabira Station.
−12.7% since 2015
17,351 → 9,698
37.27km² of it habitable
2024
2.2 people per household
2020
National average 60,630 yen
2023
5.2 per 10,000 people
2023
These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.
Shape
North to south
18.5km
Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.
See the town as it is now.
Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)
If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.
From this town's themes
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Six girders and two arches span a gorge.
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Entrance steps of Sapporo soft stone.
Former Kabato Prison Main Office炭鉄港, A river runs through, Mountains
The town lists a lamp hut as historic.
Kanayama Station, lamp hut空知川, A river runs through, Mountains
