Inhabiting shallow, sandy areas near rocky reefs, the Japanese sleeper ray is a bottom-dwelling predator of invertebrates.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed this species as Vulnerable, due to its susceptibility to trawl fisheries that operate intensively throughout its range.

The first specimens of the Japanese sleeper ray known to science were four fish collected from Japan by German naturalists Philipp Franz von Siebold and Heinrich Burger during the second quarter of the 19th century.

[2] This material formed the basis for a description authored by Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Hermann Schlegel, which was published in 1850 as part of Fauna Japonica, a series of monographs on Japanese zoology.

[4][7][8] The Japanese sleeper ray inhabits continental shelf waters in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, from southern Japan and Korea to southeastern China and Taiwan.

[8] Fairly inactive in nature, the Japanese sleeper ray spends much of its time lying buried on the sea floor.

[10][11] The Japanese sleeper ray is viviparous, with the developing embryos nourished initially by yolk and later by histotroph ("uterine milk") produced by the mother.

Females bear litters of up to five pups in early summer; the newborns measure 10 cm (3.9 in) long and are lighter and more uniform in color than the adults.

[12] Though little specific data are available, the Japanese sleeper ray is believed to be caught incidentally in shrimp trawls and other demersal fishing gear throughout its range.

Given the high intensity of fishing activity off East Asia, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed this species as Vulnerable.