Yubari City, Japan
Prophet of the Way
has gone bankrupt. It appears that all of the city's public museums are
closing.
It is hard to determine from news heard in Tokyo exactly what facilities
are closing. Japanese-language web-sites, both by private information
services and the local government of Hokkaido, are tardy in updating
Yubari-related pages. Beware. Those who need to confirm should try the
contact numbers in this Japanese-language "Yubari public assets for
sale" page:
http://www.dolphin.co.jp/hpr/yubari/saiken/kanshise/index.htm
According to the above page, the Yubari Coal Museum, the most popular
museum of the region, had 80,004 visitors in fiscal 2005: about four
bus-loads per day. Other museums were even less popular. By no wonder
nationwide news does not bother with details. Tourist guides in
English, such as 'Lonely Planet' and 'Fodder's' do not mention Yubari.
Article by Scott Lothes on visit to Yubari Coal Museum:
http://lothes.blogspot.com/2006/04/yubari-coal.html
Yubari has fine anthracite. Coal was an important strategic asset in
the earlier 20th century. It is said that "Yubari coal let Japan win
the Russo-Japanese War (1905-06)". For decades Yubari prospered as its
produce fueled economic growth.
The city entered a decline when the energy base shifted from coal to oil
in the 1960s. The quality of the coal was offset by the fact that it
sleeps deep beneath the earth. The last mine closed in 1990.
Local leaders decided to convert Yubari to a leisure town and issued
municipality bonds to build museums and sport facilities. These
projects brought some tourists, but not enough to repay the debt. The
city replied to this by borrowing yet more and constructing yet more.
The newer facilities, fantasy halls by concept, never gained wide
attention. The world's coal mines compete to serve the Japanese steel
mill. Likewise, the Japanese vacationer has a whole world to choose from.
The local government, in anticipation of an eventual way out, has
recently been falsifying its financial accounts. Under this practice,
the mess grew sheltered from voter eyes.
Yubari's demise is an extreme case of a set of problems many communities
in Japan face today. A book titled 'Dogs and Demons' investigates this
phenomenon.
Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan
by Alex Kerr (2001)
Product details, sample text, and customer reviews from amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809039435
About 100 reviews have been posted so far. This is a controversial book.
Thank you for reading,
Douso, The Prophet of the Way
-----
First posting attempt of this message to scjm. (Nov 30) So many of my
attempts to post in this newsgroup fail that I have decided to keep track.
Jim Eckman
> Yubari's demise is an extreme case of a set of problems many communities
> in Japan face today. A book titled 'Dogs and Demons' investigates this
> phenomenon.
>
> Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan
> by Alex Kerr (2001)
> Product details, sample text, and customer reviews from amazon.com:
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809039435
> About 100 reviews have been posted so far. This is a controversial book.
This is a very interesting book, you ruined my Saturday with it ;) I
haven't been back to Japan in 25 years, when I visit Kyoto next, I
wonder if I will recognize it? Of course massive fraud and corruption
exit in all governments to some degree, though at least in the lower
levels in the States its mostly controlled.
> First posting attempt of this message to scjm. (Nov 30) So many of my
> attempts to post in this newsgroup fail that I have decided to keep track.
I will see if I have better luck posting though GoogleGroups. December
4th, 2006
Jim Eckman