Hashima (Gunkanjima)
Built by Mitsubishi as a coal-mining settlement · Hashima, Nagasaki, Japan
Photo: Jordy Meow / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0), as also published in Street Art Utopia.
Hashima, nicknamed Gunkanjima (Battleship Island), is a small island off Nagasaki that was built up around an undersea coal mine run by Mitsubishi. Concrete apartment blocks, a school and a hospital housed the miners and their families, and the island was crowded until the mine closed in 1974. Everyone left soon after, and the empty buildings are slowly crumbling. Today only passengers on sightseeing-boat tours can go onto the island, and they can see less than a tenth of it. Source Source Source Source Checked
Standing Oct 2026: a TV Tokyo report from 23 October 2026 says the island’s reinforced-concrete buildings are deteriorating and at risk of collapse. Only passengers on sightseeing-boat tours may land, and they can visit less than a tenth of the island. Source Source Checked
More photos
💡 4 things to know
- A mining islandAccording to Wikipedia, Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 and mined coal under the seabed until January 1974. Discover Nagasaki dates the mining community to 1890–1974, and Nagasaki City confirms that the mine closed in 1974. Seawalls and land reclamation made the island bigger. Source Source Source Checked
- One of the most crowded places in JapanIn the late 1950s about 5,300 people lived on the island, which the city says was the highest population density in Japan. Nagasaki’s tourism site gives the 1959 peak as 5,267, while Wikipedia gives 5,259. Source Source Source Conflicting
- Forced labor in wartimeFrom the 1930s until the end of World War II, conscripted Korean civilians and Chinese prisoners of war were made to work in the mine. When the site was inscribed in 2015, Japan’s UNESCO ambassador referred to ‘a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s’. In 2021 the World Heritage Committee said it ‘strongly regrets’ that Japan had not yet fully implemented the committee’s decisions on how this history is presented. Source Source Source Checked
- World Heritage and repairsThe Hashima Coal Mine became a national historic site in 2014 and part of the UNESCO World Heritage property ‘Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution’ in 2015. Nagasaki City has a 30-year repair plan that began in fiscal 2018 and puts the seawalls first. UNESCO notes that the mine is deteriorating and hard to conserve. Source Source Checked
📍 Where it is
You can only reach the island on a boat tour from Nagasaki, and you need to book in advance. Landings depend on the weather: Wikipedia says they are feasible on fewer than 160 days a year. Visitors can see less than a tenth of the island, and each landing visitor pays a 300-yen fee that goes to the island’s repair fund. Source Source Source Source Source Checked
Opens a Google Maps search for the coordinates (32.62778, 129.73833); no Street View panorama was checked for this file.
🗓️ Sightings
- 1959
Population peaks at 5,267 · Discover Nagasaki
- 1974
Mine closes and the island becomes a ruin · Nagasaki City
- 19924 May
Abandoned apartment blocks seen from the sea (Gohachiyasu1214) · camera date
- 20087 Dec
Aerial view of the whole island (kntrty) · camera date
- 20156 Jul
Korea Times reports Japan’s UNESCO statement on forced labor
- 2021
World Heritage Committee ‘strongly regrets’ that Japan has not fully implemented its decisions · UNESCO 44 COM 7B.30
- 202527 Mar
Ruins ‘on the verge of collapse’ behind the seawall · Japan News
- 202631 Jan
Island photographed by a visitor (ノボホショコロトソ) · camera date
- 202623 Oct
Buildings at risk of collapse; boat tours still land · TV Tokyo
Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark dated records and reports. Publication dates are not camera dates.
🗞️ In the sources
【軍艦島】崩れゆく建造物…島全体の補修に1000億円!？文化財を守る人々の葛藤：ガイアの夜明け
“安全面から、現在島に入れるのは観光船のツアー客だけ。”
For safety reasons, only passengers on sightseeing-boat tours can currently go onto the island.
Korea, Japan in spat over Tokyo’s UNESCO statement on forced labor
“Sato said Japan “is prepared to take measures that allow an understanding that there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites”
端島(軍艦島)整備基金への寄附をお願いします
“昭和30年代、端島には5，300人近くの人が住んでおり、日本一の人口密度を誇っていました。”
In the 1955–1964 period, nearly 5,300 people lived on Hashima, giving it the highest population density in Japan.
✅ The facts
- Peak population
- 5,267 in 1959 (Discover Nagasaki) / 5,259 in 1959 (Wikipedia); ‘nearly 5,300’ (Nagasaki City) Source Source Source Conflicting
🔗 Related
All sources & image credits
- Wikipedia: Hashima Island (accessed Nov 2026)
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution (C 1484)
- UNESCO: Decision 44 COM 7B.30 (2021)
- Nagasaki City: 端島(軍艦島)整備基金への寄附をお願いします (updated 7 Aug 2025)
- Nagasaki City: 端島(軍艦島)の保存整備への寄附者の紹介 (updated 1 Jul 2026)
- Discover Nagasaki (official tourism site): Hashima Island (Gunkanjima)
- Korea Times: Korea, Japan in spat over Tokyo’s UNESCO statement on forced labor (6 Jul 2015)
- Korea JoongAng Daily: Korea loses Unesco vote to add Japan’s Hashima Island to World Heritage Committee’s agenda (7 Jul 2025)
- Japan News via Honolulu Star-Advertiser: The abandoned island (27 Mar 2025)
- 乗りものニュース: 閉山から45年の「軍艦島」に上陸 (30 Mar 2019)
- TV Tokyo (テレ東プラス): 【軍艦島】崩れゆく建造物… ガイアの夜明け (23 Oct 2026)
- Hero photo: Jordy Meow / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- More photos: Gohachiyasu1214 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (camera date 1992-05-04)
- More photos: Flickr user: kntrty / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (camera date 2008-12-07)
- Share image: the hero photo on a 16:9 canvas, made from the WAU media copy.
Last checked: 5 November 2026. How we verify art