COMPLETION REPORT
Post-Mining Communities: A multidisciplinary analysis of post-closure coal mining towns in Japan and theirgentrification history
Dr. Lim Tai Wei (+3)
Senior Lecture
Singapore University of Social Sciences
This study found that Japanese coal mining industry had its own unique country-specific characteristics/features.
The first feature is the tailoring of different mining methodology for different coal mine situations based on the coalseams' unique condition at each coal field. In the case of Japan, the depth of mining areas made the mechanization
process of extracting coal resources more difficult. Consequently, the Japanese coal industry did not succeed in coalmining modernization, and remained as a labour-intensive industry.
The second feature is, after WWII, companies like Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo developed productive mines
outside Japan, for example Australian and Canadian open-pit mines. They also moved into other industries (likechemicals and heavy manufacturing industries) in the immediate post-war period. The third finding is that Japanesecoal companies offered a generous welfare system for its employees, for example, company housing. Therefore it
could be said that miners and their families were an integral part of the company's production system.
When facing mine closures, most Japanese coal companies immediately evacuated from the coal producing regions,and as a result, discharged miners and their families lost their housing privileges and the way of life that they wereaccustomed to in coal mining areas. Consequently, most miners had to leave the coal mining regions, which rapidly
declined after the mass exodus.
Despite the hollowing out effect of depopulation, former coal mines like Yubari studied in this research are instituting
coping mechanisms to manage post-coal mining local economies and conservation work. Schools in Yubari
continue to preserve and impart historical knowledge of Yubari’s coal-mining past to its students. These schools also
kept well-organized galleries or heritage corners of collected material artefacts that served as reminders to Yubari
youths of the golden era of coal mining which served as the genesis of their city’s formation.
Yubari’s case study is observed keenly by international observers as an example of how cities are eased into
declining gracefully in terms of lifestyle and elderly care and physically reintegrating abandoned parts of the city
back to nature as a kind of demonstrative showcase of nature slowly reclaiming back formerly polluted lands. Future
research can be carried out in this area as a follow-up to this project.
As for recommendation, in terms of gentrification, Yubari can be a showcase of creative urban revival anddemonstrate how the state, local community and local industries can work together to create a new role for an aging
city. Yubari can be an effective showcase model for other aging cities in both aging gracefully and providing a highquality of life for its residents still living in the city and possible future migrants.

Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)
Palgrave MacMillan, December 2019 (Projected), Coal Mining Communities and Gentrification in Japan, Tai
Wei LIM, Naoko SHIMAZAKI, Yoshihisa GODO, Yiru LIM