The uneven distribution of water resources restricts the regional agricultural production. Studying the temporal and spatial characteristics of crop water consumption based on the virtual water methods and theory can improve the rational allocation and utilization efficiency of water resources and alleviate the water resources shortage. This paper studies the temporal and spatial variability of virtual water and the evapotranspiration (ETc) of soybean in Northeast China from the virtual water perspective. The results showed that: (1) During 1986-2012, the temperature of soybean growth season obviously increased and the average wind speed decreased significantly. The relative humidity decreased and the sunshine duration increased or decreased in different districts. The climate warming and drying trend in Northeast China have deteriorated. (2) The water demand (ETc) of soybean in Northeast China was more in southwest than that in northeast, and the water demand in the south decreased while increased in the northern region. Obvious decline of the average wind speed resulted in a decrease in the soybean ETc, and the changes of other meteorological factors caused an increase in soybean ETc, with the temperature as the greatest impact on ETc, accounting for a relative contribution of 36.9%. The factors that follow were relative humidity, sunshine hours and average wind speed. (3) The spatial distribution of soybean virtual water (SVW) was higher in west and lower in east and soybean virtual water reduced in most of the sites (80.6% of the sites) from 1986 to 2012. The areas with higher SVW value were concentrated in the west of Northeast China including most of Liaoning, western Jilin and western Heilongjiang. The virtual water content gradually reduced towards the east. Climate change made soybean virtual water rise by affecting the soybean water demand, but the changes in soybean production, especially in terms of yield increase, had caused soybean virtual water decline. The impact of climate change on soybean virtual water partly counteracted the decline caused by soybean production changes. Therefore, appropriately planning the soybean productive layout in Northeast China, adopting soybean varieties such as high temperature and drought tolerance, and adjusting field management measures such as irrigation and fertilization, according to the spatio-temporal characteristics of soybean virtual water, are effective adaptation measures to improve the utilization efficiency of soybean water resources in the context of climate change.