夕張市石炭博物館

Yūbarishisekitanhakubutsukan - Yūbari-shi Sekitan Hakubutsukan - Yubari-si Sekitan-no-Rekisimura - Yubari Coal Mining Museum

Useful Information

Location:	7 Takamatsu, Yubari City, Hokkaido 068-0401. (43.068403, 141.988903)
Open:	Mid-APR to SEP Wed-Mon daily 10-17. OCT to mid-NOV Wed-Mon daily 10-16. Last entry 30 minutes before closing. [2022]
Fee:	Adults JPY 720, Children (4-12) JPY 440, Disabled JPY 660. Groups (20+): Adults JPY 660, Children (4-12) JPY 440. Yubari Citizen free. [2022]
Classification:	Mining Museum Coal Mine Replica Underground Mine
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=60 min., self guided.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:	Guide Book of the Yubari Coal Mine Museum
Address:	Yubari Coal Museum, 7 Takamatsu, Yubari City, Hokkaido 068-0401, Tel: +81-1235-2-5500, Fax: +81-1235-2-5566.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1888	coal discovered the American Lyman Monroe.
1890	first mine at Yubari opened.
1920	the first national Japanese census counts 50,000 inhabitants.
1943	Yubari achieved the status of city.
1960	peak of population.
1964	peak of production.
1980	Yubari Coal Mining Museum opened as an industrial Museum.
1990	last mine closed.
2007	city went bankrupt and mining museum is for sale.

Geology

The Yubari coal is the result of dense rain forests of metasequoia and other trees. The biomass was covered by landslides and volcanic eruptions, compressed by the overlying rocks and thus transformed into black coal. Lifted by the orogeny of the Hokkaido mountains, erosion removed most of the cover until the seams reappeared at the surface. The mining activities followed the seams into the mountain flank.

The seams are between three and five meters thick, there are even some spots of up to seven metre thick coal. This makes the coal very easy to mine. The decision to close the mine was based on the change in global markets, but increasing prices for coal and oil could make the coal mining profitable again.

Description

In 1888 the American Lyman Monroe was hired by the Japanese to survey the coal deposits of Hokkaido. He discovered coal in the mountains, three coal beds with thicknesses between three and five meters. The thickest reaches a thickness of seven meters. Two years later the first mine was opened and the town Yubari developed from scratch as a miner town. The coal mining grew continually and reached its peak in the 1960s. Yubari had its highest population of 116,908 inhabitants in 1960, the highest production of the mines was in 1964, when four million tons of coal were mined. But foreign coal was cheaper, and the demands of industry changed towards oil, so the government favoured imports from Australia and China.

Today Yubari has become a small town with 13,000 inhabitants. As the mines are closed, new ways to earn money had to be found. Today the town is well known for its (expensive) melons, a yearly film festival, and the mining museum, which seems to be a sort of theme park.

The center of the mining related exhibits is the 夕張市石炭博物館 (Yubari Coal Mining Museum). It shows the discovery of the coal, the development of the mining and the used technology. A tunnel of the mine is integrated into the museum, an elevator brings the visitors down a dozen meters, but a sound and light show gives the impression that the ride goes down several hundred meters. The tunnel is rather dark, illuminated by widely spaced incandescent bulbs. The side branches show dioramas showing the work underground and the used tools. The visitor gets a hardhat and headlamp at the entrance. The tunnel is almost dark, only a single bulb is switched off and on by motion sensors, as the visitor moves on.

The Fossil Museum shows some 250 fossils which were found during the mining. They include plesiosuars and ammonites. The Mining Community Museum has dioramas with wax figures, showing the daily life of the miners during the 1960s. A scale model shows Yubari in its busiest mining days, overhead lighting simulates the passing of the day, complete with red sunset. At nightfall the tiny miner's houses which line the hills glow warmly. A real highlight is the Coal Basset, a place where a seven-metre thick part of the coal seam is visible.

The city of Yubari received enormous subsidies from Tokyo to build a sort of theme park around the coal mine since the mid 1980s. But the sights were poorly thought-out and drew very few visitors to Yubari. As a result, the cost to keep them up ruined the town. Finally, in winter 2006/2007 the city and the mining museum went bankrupt. History Village and about 20 other tourist facilities are now up for sale.

The museum is now operated by the non-profit Coal Mine Memory Promotion Corporation [2022]. They did a very good job renovating most parts of the museum during the last years. The highlights are still the underground exhibition and the mine tunnel replica behind. It seems the underground exhibition was only minimally modified and the mine replica is currently closed. As this is the central exhibit of the museum, we hope it will be reopened soon.