Once a jewel in the crown of coal mining Japan, Yubari has dramatically declined from a coal mining powerhouse to a shell of its former self, becoming bankrupt and experiencing a population decline of over 90%.
At the peak of coal production in Yubari, twenty-four coal mines were in operation, largely owned by the companies Mitsubishi & Hokutan. Yubari had built its reliance upon supplying coal to Japanese power stations and coking coal for the Muroran steelworks.

Around the 1950's & 60's, Japan began shifting its reliance from coal to oil as a means of fueling the country's power stations. This technological...Read More

Once a jewel in the crown of coal mining Japan, Yubari has dramatically declined from a coal mining powerhouse to a shell of its former self, becoming bankrupt and experiencing a population decline of over 90%.
At the peak of coal production in Yubari, twenty-four coal mines were in operation, largely owned by the companies Mitsubishi & Hokutan. Yubari had built its reliance upon supplying coal to Japanese power stations and coking coal for the Muroran steelworks.

Around the 1950's & 60's, Japan began shifting its reliance from coal to oil as a means of fueling the country's power stations. This technological shift would bring about the beginning of Yubari's decline.
Coal was discovered in Yubari in 1888 under Hokkaido Colliery and Railway Company (Hokutan), and mining commenced in 1890. The Hokutan Company had the most extended history of any coal-mining firm in Yubari.

One of the most telling examples of the realities of coal mining families in Yubari is the existence of a rhyme, "Yubari, Kubari, Sakabakari, Dontokuriya, Shinubakari." It means: "In Yubari, every day you eat, every day you climb the hills, then the explosions come, and you die."

From 1892 to 1985, there were twenty-two recorded accidents in Yubari, killing 1,884 people. Three of these accidents occurred in 1912, causing 538 deaths. In 1914 another explosion claimed 432 lives.

In 1981, a methane gas explosion in Hokutan New Mine killed 93 miners. The mine was only 6 years old and considered state of the art. However, the Hokutan subsidiary that ran the mine went into bankruptcy two months later.

The Hokutan Subsidiary was already in financial strife long before the disaster, needing to pay off debt as quickly as possible. So the company ordered the first mining phase to go directly into the more expensive coking coal at the deeper levels. This meant the steaming coal was not mined first, which would have gradually vented the accumulated methane gas, which consequently caused the explosion.

When the mine closed in 1982, over 2,000 employees were out of work. Workers who wanted to transfer to another mine in Yubari had to register at the employment office and pass a company examination. Some workers decided they were at the end of their working lives and chose to retire, while others felt they would had better career prospects by moving to Sapporo. As a result, only about 250 men moved to the Hokutan Mayachi mine.

The lifestyle of coal miners living in Yubari consisted of hard labour, deep underground with no sunlight in sweltering heat while inhaling coal dust all day. In return, they received low wages and exploitation.
Outside of Yubari, coal miners were depicted as lazy. Others claimed that the miners did not want to work a regular eight-hour day because they were used to working only the four-hour shift in the mine. Even though the other four hours consisted of travel to and from the coal face.
The stigma attached to coal mining was highlighted by families who moved from Yubari, where they would lie about where they had relocated to avoid being judged negatively.

The stress of the miners' work wasn't just something the miners themselves had to deal with.
The wives of miners in Yubari would worry when their husbands left for work. If an accident occurred at a mine, an alarm would sound across town, inducing terror and panic. At the same time, they waited to find out if their husband was a victim of the latest incident.
Children, too, would run from school to the mine entrance when they heard the alarm.

When the explosion in the Hokutan New Mine occurred in 1981, there were 50 men still trapped in the mine. The resulting underground fire from the blast made rescue impossible.

As relatives held a vigil at the mine entrance, Chiaki Hayashi, president of the Hokutan mining company, announced that officials would flood the tunnels with water to extinguish fires, admitting that flooding the mine would drown anyone still alive. The decision was met with outrage by the family members of those still inside.

It's a sad history and made all the worse that this was not the first or the last mining accident Yubari faced.

In 1985, another massive methane gas explosion at the Mitsubishi Minami Oyubari Mine claimed the lives of 62 miners, which led to its closure in 1990. The mine was seen by Yubari as the last hope for the survival of their coal mining industry. With this tragic event came the end to the century-old industry that Yubari had built itself upon.

Yubari has undergone a significant decline in population over the past 60 years. At its peak, the population of Yubari had stood at around 120,000. The gradual closure of the mines saw workers leave the city, and eventually the complete closure of the industry saw the population contract even further, to just over 40,000 by 1980.

To adapt to the new challenges facing the city, Yubari borrowed large sums of money to reinvent itself through tourism and melons (which Yubari is also famous for). Even on the Shinkansen from Hokkaido to central Japan, I noticed that the melon sweets in the refreshments trolley were proudly labelled as having come from Yubari.

So began a series of failed investments intended to relieve the financial apocalypse facing the Yubari but instead hastening its demise.

The construction of attractions such as melon castle, a melon liquor distilling facility aimed at attracting tourists, now sits abandoned on the foothills of the mountains that overlook Yubari.

A 'coal mining themed amusement park' was also built, Now in an advanced state of decay. Most of the attractions have been removed and scrapped. What remains has either been boarded up, crushed by snow, or is in a state of complete disrepair.

Other decisions seemed to make no economic sense, such as building a road to the former Shimizusawa School with the sole purpose of demolishing it… And then not demolishing the school due to lack of funds probably did nothing to help either.

The day of reckoning for Yubari came in 2007 when the city declared bankruptcy with debts totalling more than ¥35.3 billion ($447 million AUD).

An 18-year financial reconstruction plan was then established.

Public services were cut to the bone. The public workforce of 3000 was halved. 6 schools were combined into 1. The hospital was downgraded to a clinic. Snow clearing was cut back and public toilets were closed.

Yubari is a city that has struggled to find its place and purpose in the world beyond its industrial past. The decline has been severe, but that decline is also a magnified reflection of the demographic problems facing Japan as a whole. An ageing and shrinking population, only on a much more severe scale.

That said, my trip to Yubari was one of the most memorable moments of my life. I drove back and forth from Sapporo for most of a week to photograph buildings. The people who helped me understand the history were incredibly accommodating, and without a doubt, the next time I am in Japan, Yubari will be the first place I visit. Read less