The Second Gunkanjima / Ikejima Coal Mine Tour

Japan's only coal mine experience tour
Underground exploration on the second Gunkanjima!

Ikejima Island is located about 7 km off the Nishisonogi Peninsula in Nagasaki Prefecture. The island used to be a bustling place with 8,000 inhabitants, but now the population is only about 100, and silence reigns. However, the island is secretly gaining popularity as a second Gunkanjima, where visitors can experience a coal mine, the only one of its kind in Japan. See and touch the abandoned, uninhabited town and the real coal mine and feel the rise and fall of an era.

Waiting in the pit was
A powerful underground world!

Although a small island with a circumference of about 4 km, Ikejima was the second largest coal mine island in Japan and the last one in Kyushu to be in active operation. Coal mine development began in 1952, and commercial coal production began in 1959. In the 1960s, coal output reached its peak, but the mine was closed in 2001, soon after the beginning of the 21st century. Although the population rapidly declined after that, the mine was used as a training center to teach mining techniques to overseas coal miners, and some of its tunnels are now open for tours.

Tours require participation in a tour and advance reservations are required. There are three courses: a morning and afternoon course, and a morning course plus optional tour, guided by a former coal miner as an instructor. After gathering at the Port of Ikejima and watching a video explaining the history of the island, visitors board a trolley train, which was actually used in the mines, and finally depart for the mine.
We disembarked from the trolley at the stop at the back of the horizontal tunnel and toured the mine on foot. The inside of the tunnel is humid and the air is cool. The ceiling and walls are lined with layers of wiring, ventilation ducts, and heavy machinery for excavation. Everything that exists here has a power that only the real thing has, and no replica can match it. Visitors can also experience the operation of a drilling machine, an air auger, and a blasting switch, which gives them a realistic feeling of being in the tunnel. The tunnels are intricate and have branches, making exploration a fun experience.

Walking through an aging coal-dwelling town
Abandoned town, cat and coal mine lunch box

Now, after the tour, let's go out to explore the island. The island is small enough to explore on foot. While the area around the harbor is dominated by coal mine-related facilities, the south side of the island is a residential area lined with company housing complexes, which can be considered the symbolic scenery of Ikejima. There are dozens of housing complexes, most of which are currently vacant and off-limits.
　More than 20 years have passed since the closure of the mountain, and the sight of man-made structures being swallowed up by plants, such as entire buildings covered with ivy and low-rise floors buried in grass and trees, evokes a variety of emotions, including a sense of desolation and awe of nature. Cats, unaware of such human feelings, live in an abandoned town at will.
If you join the optional course, you will be guided to places you would not normally see, such as the inside of the company housing and the second shaft, where life in the 1960s was recreated. For the morning course and the optional course, a "Coal Mine Lunch Box" (900 yen with tea) is available for those who make a reservation in advance. Reservations are only required, and there are currently no restaurants on the island. The last one closed at the end of March 2023. The "Tanko bento" is a reproduction of the lunch boxes that coal miners used to eat in the mines. The aluminum lunch boxes also have a nostalgic flavor.

Ikejima Coal Mine Experience Facility