The structure of the oil spill simulation and prediction system developed in the Research Institute for Applied Mechanics of Kyushu University is discussed. Application to the simulation of the oil spill incident in the Sea of Japan January 1997 is analyzed. The particle tracking method is used for the spill model, which includes the effects of oil transport by wind and currents, buoyancy and random diffusion, parameterization for oil evaporation, biochemical decay and for the interaction of oil particles with the coast. The shallow water nonlinear Japan Sea ocean circulation model is adopted for the simulation of the oil spill drift. The vertical current profile is restored by local bilinear turbulent current model and the empirical wind drift is included at the sea surface. Comparison of simulation results for the Japan Sea oil spill January 1997 with observations shows quite good correspondence. Chronology of the oil spreading along the coast of Japan is well reproduced by model. Simulated oil concentration fields reflect the main features in distribution of observed oil as a number of random slicks widely distributed along the Japanese coast. Model reproduces the oil spreading to the north from Noto peninsula, although underestimates the speed of coastal current.