It can be found burrowing in soft sediment in shallow water in the Pacific Ocean around the coasts of China and Japan.

It has a long fossil record, having been found in formations in southwestern Sakhalin dating back to the lower middle Miocene, with numerous occurrences in the Neogene and Quaternary periods in northern Japan.

[2] Almost unispecific beds of fossils of Glycymeris yessoensis are found in the Onma Formation in central Japan.

It is found burrowing in sand at depths ranging between the intertidal zone and 60 m (200 ft).

It often acts as a commensal host to the boring polychaete worm Polydora glycymerica.