Native to East Asia, it is distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean along the coast of Hokkaidō in Japan southward to the Korean Peninsula, China, Hong Kong and northern Vietnam.

[3][9] Adults typically maintain a feeding territory,[10] but the form restricted to lakes and associated streams is schooling.

[11]Most populations of this species are amphidromous and breed in the lower part of rivers during the autumn, laying their eggs in small pits they dig in the gravel.

[13] They overwinter in coastal regions, staying there until the spring where the young fish typically are about 6 cm (2.5 in) long and move back to the rivers.

[1][14] In Japan, some populations live their entire life in freshwater, only moving between lakes and the associated streams where they breed.

These have a more variable migration pattern, moving upstream from the lakes in the spring, summer or autumn.

[12] Although their larvae mostly stay within freshwater, some are carried downstream with the current to the sea and become part of the amphidromous populations.

On the Nagara River where Japanese cormorants (Phalacrocorax capillatus) are used by the fishermen, the fishing season draws visitors from all over the world.

[citation needed] A common method of preparing ayu and other small fish in Japan is to skewer it in such a way so that its body forms a wave, making it look as though it is swimming.