page_title: Abashiri Prison
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Abashiri Prison / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Abashiri Prison日本語: 天都山展望台から見た網走刑務所
context_page_description: Abashiri Prison is a prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido Prefecture that opened in 1890. The northernmost prison in Japan, it is located near the Abashiri River and east of Mount Tento. It holds inmates with sentences of less than ten years. Older parts of the prison were relocated to the base of Mount Tento in 1983, where they operate as the country's only prison museum.
context_section_description: In April 1890, the Meiji government sent over 1,000 political prisoners to the isolated Abashiri village and forced them to build roads linking it to the more populous south. Abashiri Prison later became known for being a self-sufficient farming prison, and cited as a model for others throughout Japan.
  Most of the prison burned down in a 1909 fire, but it was reconstructed in 1912. It took on its current name in 1922. In 1984, the prison moved to a modern reinforced concrete complex.
  The only man to escape the prison was Yoshie Shiratori in 1944, an antihero in Japan. Due to the 1965 film Abashiri Prison and its sequels, the prison became a popular tourist attraction. The prison is also known for its wooden nipopo (ニポポ) dolls carved by its inmates.
caption: Abashiri Prison in June 2010.
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