Abstract
This chapter argues that reasons for coal mine closure in Japan can be categorized into five main narratives and explanations. First, coal as an energy resource in Japan was outcompeted by cheaper oil imports in the 1960s due to the rising yen. Second, the initial early post-war boom in coal demand due to the Korean War (1950) plummeted after the war. Third, coal use ran into growing environmental awareness in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. Fourth, coal unions were politically volatile and caused political tensions within Japan. Finally, Japan and its economy was becoming wealthier and was keen to transition to a more-efficient, less-polluting fuel that could avoid extraction challenges in dangerous coal mines prone to flooding.
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Notes
- 1.
Incidentally, the population size of Tagawa in Chikuho also corresponded with the prosperity of its coal mines. At the height of Tagawa’s coal mine development in 1955, according to the City of Tagawa, the population reached as high as 100,000 residents after nearby Iikane village was absorbed into the city that year. Source: City of Tagawa, “Charcoal capital, Tagawa” dated 16 August 2010 in the Tagawa City website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.joho.tagawa.fukuoka.jp.e.ak.hp.transer.com/tanto/page_86.html?type=top
- 2.
UNESCO, “Memory of the World Register The Sakubei Yamamoto Collection (Japan) Ref no. 2010-36” dated 2010 in the UNESCO website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/mow/nomination_forms/japan_sakubei_yamamoto_collection.pdf, p. 5.
- 3.
Yamamoto, Sakubei, Yamani ikiru [Author’s translation: Living in the coal mine] (Japan: Kodansha), 2011, unpaginated printed insert and p. 93.
- 4.
Yamamoto, Sakubei, Yamani ikiru [Author’s translation: Living in the coal mine] (Japan: Kodansha), 2011, pp. 158–159.
- 5.
Asian Development Bank (ADB), TAR: PRC 39020 Technical Assistance to the People’s Republic of China for Alternative Livelihood Options to Facilitate Coal Sector Restructuring (Financed by the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund) TAR: PRC 39020 dated November 2005 (Manila: ADB), 2005, p. 2.
- 6.
Asian Development Bank (ADB), TAR: PRC 39020 Technical Assistance to the People’s Republic of China for Alternative Livelihood Options to Facilitate Coal Sector Restructuring (Financed by the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund) TAR: PRC 39020 dated November 2005 (Manila: ADB), 2005, p. 2.
- 7.
City of Tagawa, “Charcoal capital, Tagawa” dated 16 August 2010 in the Tagawa City website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.joho.tagawa.fukuoka.jp.e.ak.hp.transer.com/tanto/page_86.html?type=top
- 8.
Arima, Manabu, “Thoughts on Yamamoto Sakubei’s Coalmine Paintings Modernization that disappeared and UNESCO Memory of the World” dated October-November 2011 in Japan Echo Web No. 8 [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.japanechoweb.jp/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/11/jew0813b.pdf
- 9.
Hane, Mikiso, Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan (Oxford UK: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers), 1982, p. 226.
- 10.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, “Tantouga moeta kisetsu” dated 8 September 2011 in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan: Nikkei), 2011, p. 32.
- 11.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, “Tankouno ibuki gendaini tsutaeru” dated 16 July 2011 (Japan: Nikkei), 2011, p. 16 (seikatsu).
- 12.
For more information on the attractions in Tagawa: Kyushu Tourism Information, “Tagawa History and Coal Museum” dated 2012 in the Kyushu Tourism Information website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.welcomekyushu.com/event/?mode=detail&id=9999901004599&isSpot=&isEvent=
- 13.
Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Association, “Interview with an inhabitant of Tagawa 01” dated 2011 in the Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Information Crossroad Fukuoka website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.crossroadfukuoka.jp/chikuhou/en/contents/tagawa/local/
- 14.
Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Association, “Tagawa Coal Mine Festival Tankobushi Matsuri” dated 2012 in Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Information Crossroad Fukuoka website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.crossroadfukuoka.jp/en/event/?mode=detail&id=4000000002307&isEvent=1
- 15.
City of Tagawa, “The Tagawa City Coal Mining Historical Museum” dated 2011 in the Sakubei Yamamoto website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.y-sakubei.com/english/museum/index.html
- 16.
Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Association, “Tagawa Horumon Nabe” dated 2012 in the Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Information Crossroad Fukuoka website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.crossroadfukuoka.jp/en/event/?mode=detail&id=400000007712&isSpot=1
- 17.
Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Association, “Interview with an inhabitant of Tagawa 01” dated 2011 in the Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Information Crossroad Fukuoka website [downloaded on 26 September 2012], available at http://www.crossroadfukuoka.jp/chikuhou/en/contents/tagawa/local/
- 18.
Zhao Tianchi, The Epic Quest for Oil in China (Daguo Shiyoumeng) (Tianjin: Tianjin Renmin Chubanshe), 2013, p. 9.
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Lim, T.W. (2017). Historical Background of the Japanese Coal Industry Decline. In: Energy Transitions in Japan and China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1681-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1681-3_8
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