[/floatl]As oil prices rise, nations revive coal mining
International Herlad Tribune May 22, 2008
...so far the coal revival has failed to produce new jobs in Bibai's mines[color="Silver"] [Yubari, Hokkaido][/color], where machines now do most of the digging. Many residents doubt a real renaissance is even possible. Much of the city's population is in its 70s or older. Some doubt that working-age people who left when the mines closed will ever want to come back... Hokuryo, a unit of the Mitsubishi Corporation that once operated vast mines producing a million tons of coal a year and employing 8,000 workers. Today, it employs just 40 at its single remaining strip mine....more...
[INDENT]Also refer to the old FG thread mentioning Yubari Coal Town -- the poorest city in Japan, by over 3 times:
Japan's greatest Boondoggle - white elephants of Nippon
Japan - When the last coal mine in Yubari closed down in 1990, city elders thought pumping tax money into an amusement park, hall of fossils, ski resort and robot museum would keep this remote snowbound town of 13,000 people afloat and on the map. Instead of drawing the coveted tourists, the investments bankrupt the city and drew nationwide ridicule. They also forced an already downtrodden backwater to embrace a severe cost-cutting scheme to lay off half the city‘s employees, slash public salaries, shut down schools and even padlock public toilets....[/INDENT]
Additionally:
http://coal.mining-jp.com/yuubari/
