Yaizu City

Four in ten skipjack tuna land at this port.

Yaizu Port

Photo by Alpsdake (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Skipjack tuna

Skipjack frozen at sealand here more than anywhere.

Yaizu Port is a base for distant-water fishing. Skipjack tuna caught far out at sea and quick-frozen on board are landed here, more than at any other port in Japan. In a Fisheries Agency survey, about 40% of the skipjack landed at Japan's main fishing ports came ashore at Yaizu (2024). In the city the fish become katsuobushi (鰹節, dried bonito), and every year since 1949 Yaizu katsuobushi has been offered for the Imperial Court's Niiname-sai harvest rite.

No. 1 in Japan by volume
About 40% at the main ports
Offered for the Niiname-sai since 1949

02 ／ Koizumi Yakumo

Yakumo chose a seathat was not shallow.

In August 1897, looking for a good sea to swim in, Koizumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) passed over the shallow shore at Maisaka (舞阪) and chose the deep, rough sea at Yaizu. He rented the upstairs of fishmonger Yamaguchi Otokichi's (山口乙吉) house on Hamadōri (浜通り) and spent six summers here before he died. The Yaizu Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum (焼津小泉八雲記念館), opened in 2007, is free to enter.

First visit in 1897
Six summers
Free admission to the museum

03 ／ Mountain hamlet

A stone-walled hamlet becameShizuoka's first preserved district.

Partway up Yakitsube-no-Komichi (やきつべの小径), said to be the Tōkaidō road of the Nara period, lies Hanazawa-no-Sato (花沢の里), a mountain hamlet of about 30 households. Its board-walled buildings rising in steps on stone walls earned it selection in 2014 as a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, the first in Shizuoka Prefecture. It is about 4 km from Yaizu Station.

Selected in 2014
The first in Shizuoka
About 30 households

Living here

13 minutes to Shizuoka on the Tōkaidō Line.

about 140,000 people

The city has two JR Tōkaidō Line stations, Yaizu and Nishi-Yaizu, and it is about 13 minutes from Yaizu Station to Shizuoka Station. The Tōmei Expressway has two interchanges here, Yaizu IC and Ōigawa Yaizu Fujieda Smart IC. The average temperature is about 18°C, and it is mild all year round.

People living here: 136,845people
Area: 70.3km²
Households: 53,243households
Rent (average for rentals): 49,939yen
Healthcare: 5 hospitals ／ 76 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Population from 2010 onward (municipal boundary changed).2008-11-01 に編入合併（大井川町）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —13 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Yaizu City in Japan34.867°N 138.323°E

to ShizuokaJR Tōkaidō Main Line13min

Travel times follow 静岡県の移住・定住サイト「ゆとりすと静岡」の焼津市のページ（問い合わせ先は焼津市企画部移住定住課）に載っている値 (checked 2026-09-24). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 4 municipalities.

Territory of Yaizu City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

17.2km

藤枝市, 吉田町, 静岡市, 島田市

Yaizu City isthis kind of town.

01A base for distant-water fishing that lands more skipjack than any port in Japan; its katsuobushi is offered for the Niiname-sai every year
02Koizumi Yakumo loved its deep, rough sea and spent six summers here
03Hanazawa-no-Sato, a stone-walled mountain hamlet, was Shizuoka's first Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings

See the town as it is now.

Facebookkohoyaizu ↗

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Yaizu City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗