yuubari, the city of past-the city of future

in the middle of september, i made a brief stop in yuubari during my first trip to hokkaido. it had been one of the most attractive destinations for me for a few years since i had started researching shrinking cities.

yuubari started developing as a coal mining town in the latter half of the 19th century. when coal was the main resource for energy production, yuubari experienced a rapid growth and became one of the biggest coal mining towns in japan. however as the energy production started shifting from coal to oil, the city faced its sunset. the coal mining industry started fading away from the 1970s and the last mine stopped operating in 1990. since the city was heavily dependent on mining industry, its fall let labors to leave the city. after the sunset of the mining industry, the city shifted its economy to tourism oriented. however neither its vision, strategies, or operation were appropriately set, and the lack of sense of crisis oppressed city's finance. the fall of mining industry and following failure of measure for economic recovery ended up with municipal bankruptcy in 2007. now its population is about 10,600. this is 90% smaller than its peak in 1960. its aging rate is as high as 44%...

these are what ive learned from wikipedia.

in order to get to know the city, i stopped by at the coal mine museum and mining lifestyle museum, and this choice was a diamond. i could really learn the rise and fall of the city. what impressed me the most was the underground exhibition room which i could actually walk the former driftway. there were plenty of tools and machines displayed that were actually used back in the coal mining era. the museums were super rich in local cultural heritages and were much much much more absorbing than my expectation and shabby reputation. i could grasp the situation at once.

after the brief stop at the museums i headed to a former thermal power plant which was under the demolition work, because there was an opening of an art event. the venue (lets leave aside the event for the moment) was really fantastic. in the field of art, it has been popular to utilize old factories and garages as these buildings provide big spaces for artists to express. this trend could be found anywhere around the world, such as china. whats interesting about this venue is the story after the event finished. in the most cases, people in the art industry are utilizing abandoned spaces to renovate to use as galleries or workshops. on the other hand, this former thermal power plant will keep being demolished. the event was possible thanks to the collaboration with the company to demolish the power plant. i wondered how could the city of yuubari pay for the demolition but i failed to ask about it.

in these two tourist attractions(?), there were people (not many, but at least, some). however, while i was driving from the museums to the power plant, i remember there were only three people on the street although i was driving on the main (or only?) road of the city. i passed by plenty of shops but most (or all? i dont remember) of them were closed. i couldnt even buy a souvenir from the museums as even the gift shop was closed.

it can be said that yuubari is the city of past. it was once flourished as the main mining town of japan and was a dynamo for the economic growth of the nation. although now it has lost its hegemony, no one can deny its importance and contribution of the past.

at the same time, it can also be said that yuubari is the city of future. on one level or another, there are plenty of cities in japan (and even japan itself) having similar problems as yuubari has been facing, such as sunset of key industries, lack of vision and strategies, population emigration, high aging rate, and so on. from this view point, yuubari is the most advanced city in this country. cities have to learn from the story of yuubari for their future.

i went to visit yuubari to see the future of this country. however, yuubari showed its future as well. it is its people. i had a noodle for a lunch there and surprisingly the restaurant's keepers told me that they were not from yuubari but to move to there in recent years. if this sort of outsiders' pioneering spirits and yuubari's unique story can collaborate, they will surely bear a fruit in the future i believe.