The island sits 50 kilometres (31 mi) off the coast of Hokkaidō.

Rebun Island is home to a chashi, or hilltop fortification of the Ainu people.

[5] Rebun Island is also the site where the last reliable record of the extinct Japanese sea lion came from in 1974.

From roughly from north to south, they are:[8] A Jōmon woman excavated from Funadomari remains (about 3,800 – 3,500 YBP) on the Rebun Island in Hokkaido belongs to Haplogroup D1b2a(D-CTS220).

[9] This discovery proved the hypothesis that Haplogroup D1b is one of the Jomon lineages.