Depopulation and Financial Collapse in Yūbari: Market Forces, Administrative Folly, or a Warning to Others?

Philip Seaton

Social Science Japan Journal, 2010, vol. 13, issue 2, 227-240

Abstract: In 2006, the former coalmining town of Yūbari in Hokkaido declared financial collapse. This paper explores the reasons for the collapse with a focus on three factors: depopulation following the closure of the mines, the failings of a regeneration strategy based on tourism and decentralisation policy in the early 2000s. It considers the implications of depopulation and economic decline in Japan's ‘shrinking regions’ in an era of increasing wealth divisions in Japan on both personal and regional levels.

Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:sscijp:v:13:y:2010:i:2:p:227-240.

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