Honcho, Yubari (Old Shopping Streets)
The central district of Yubari, a city that once prospered from coal mining and was called the "coal capital." After the city's financial collapse in 2007, its population fell sharply. Signs and buildings from the old shopping streets remain as they were, while many have become vacant or abandoned. In streets that seem frozen in the early 2000s there is hardly any sign of people, and shuttered shops alternate with vacant lots overgrown with weeds. The rapid shrinking of a regional city is laid bare here, with a particular emptiness that seems to reflect Japan's future.
See photos and posts for this place on the LIMap map
Nearby liminal spaces
- Asahi Elementary School (Family School Fureai) (0.9 km)
- Shoto Elementary School (Garo Round School Buildings) (29 km)
- Former Mitsui Bibai Gorakukan (Mining-Town Cinema) (29 km)
- Historical Village of Hokkaido (39 km)
- Moerenuma Park (45 km)
- Sapporo Underground Shopping Street, Pole Town (51 km)
LIMap is a map for finding and sharing liminal spaces: places emptied of people that feel eerie and nostalgic at the same time. Many of these places are private or off-limits, so please follow the notes above and view them only from where you are allowed.