Abashiri Prison Museum

Abashiri Prison Museum is an outdoor history museum located in the Abashiri National Park area. On a site equivalent to 3.5 times the size of Tokyo Dome, the former Abashiri Prison buildings have been relocated, restored, preserved, and opened to the public.

Visitors can see valuable buildings built in the Meiji and Taisho periods, including four facilities designated as National Important Cultural Properties, such as the "shack and central guardhouse," which is the oldest existing wooden prison building in Japan, the "government building," which was used as the main facility for the prison administration, and the "counseling hall," where pastors and priests provided rehabilitation guidance to inmates.

At the theater in the Prison History Hall, visitors can experience the harsh labor conditions experienced by inmates a century ago on three screens. The cafeteria, where you can taste "prison food," a reproduction of the meals served to inmates at the current Abashiri Prison, and the museum store, which sells related books and prison work products, are also not to be missed. Hands-on classes such as brick making and making bean straw straps are also available with advance reservations (minimum of 4 people).