Ashibetsu

Ashibetsu is a city in Sorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, in the northern part of the Yubari Mountains with Mount Ashibetsu to its south. It was once a prosperous coal mining city whose population peaked above 70,000, and it has shrunk since the mines closed between 1963 and 1992. In 2020 it had an estimated 12,555 residents on 865.02 square kilometres. Sato Denjiro founded the settlement in 1893, and it became a village in 1900, a town in 1941 and a city in 1953. The name is said to come from the Ashibetsu River in both of two proposed readings. Its sights include the Hokkaido Kannon statue, which opened in 1989, and the Canadian World park, a model of the village of Avonlea, now a municipal park.