The asteroid was discovered on 7 September 1989, by Japanese astronomers Masayuki Yanai and Kazuro Watanabe at Kitami Observatory in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan.
[1] Due to a precovery obtained at Palomar Observatory in 1951, the asteroid's observation arc could be extended by 38 years prior to its discovery.
[3] Between 2008 and 2016, three rotational lightcurves of Abashiri were obtained by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory.
[a][b][c] According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Abashiri measures 9.0 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.20,[4] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24, derived from 8 Flora, the Flora family's largest member and namesake, and calculates a somewhat smaller diameter of 7.2 kilometers.
It is located at the Sea of Okhotsk, about 50 kilometers east of Kitami, in the eastern part of the island of Hokkaidō.