It is native to Asia, where its range includes China, Japan, Korea, parts of Russia, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

[4] Natural predators of the goby include yellow goosefish (Lophius litulon), ocellate spot skate (Okamejei kenojei), Japanese whiting (Sillago japonica), leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata), ashishirohaze (Acanthogobius lactipes), and suzuki (Lateolabrax japonicus).

They play host to the metacercariae of flukes, including Echinostoma hortense, Heterophyes nocens, Heterophyopsis continua, Pygidiopsis summa, Strictodora fuscata, S. lari, and Acanthotrema felis.

People in Korea catch and eat the yellowfin goby raw, and often become infected with flukes.

[5] The fish is also host to the copepods Acanthochondria yui and Anchistrotos kojimensis,[6] the latter of which was first described from a yellowfin goby specimen.

[4] It had probably been introduced a few years earlier, around the same time as the chameleon goby (Tridentiger trigonocephalus).

It may have arrived in ballast water or as eggs on biofouling animals such as oysters on ship hulls.

Anglers using the goby as bait in the local river system may have aided its dispersal.

[10] It is a Class 1 noxious fish in the state, its sale or possession prohibited and punishable by fines.