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The paper wasp Polistes riparius is distributed in cold regions of northern East Asia to Russia. P. riparius are characterized by having longer cells than those of the closely related P. chinensis, which has a similar life history, as an adaptation to cold regions. The phylogenetic relationships of paper wasps have recently been studied; however, the genetic diversity and population structure of P. riparius has not been determined. The present study is the first to analyze the complete mitochondrial genome using next generation sequencing of P. riparius collected from Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. The genome consisted of a closed loop that was 16,383 bp-long and included 13 protein coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and one AT-rich control region. The average AT content was 84.54%. The heavy (H)-strand was predicted to have 12 PCGs and 14 tRNA genes, while the light (L)-strand was predicted to contain one PCGs, eight tRNA genes, and two rRNA genes. All PCGs started with ATG. Stop codons were of two types: TAA for 11 genes (ND1, ND2, ND3, ND4L, ND5, ND6, COXI, COXII, COXIII, COB, ATP6 and ATP8) and TAG for two genes (ND3 and ND4). The molecular phylogenetic relationship based on the maximum likelihood method using 13 PCGs was consistent with some previous studies in which a closely relationship between P. riparius and P. jokahamae.