Japan’s 20 Shockingly Abandoned Places That You’ve Never Seen

There are many more than 20 abandoned places in Japan but, since the fun is in discovering them for yourself, we only cover 20 of them here. In the West, the hobby of searching for and exploring abandoned places is generally called urbanex or urbex, meaning urban exploration though it need not be restricted to urban areas. In Japan, the word used for this is haikyo, which means ruin, which is probably more apt. These haikyo include homes, schools, hospitals, hotels, amusement parks and even whole islands. Sometimes it is hard to see why these places are abandoned, as there seems no obvious reason. It sometimes even looks as though people just dropped what they were doing and left. In no particular order, here are 20 of the most interesting.

20. Hashima (Battleship Island)

15 kilometres from the coasts of Nagasaki, there is an abandoned island called Hashima, or maybe you’ve heard about it as Gunkanjima. This 480 x 160 meters big island was once Japan’s coalmining center and also the most densely populated island on Earth. But now it’s empty. The story of the island began in the 18th century. The residents of the nearby island, Takashima, were using coal in their households found on the surface of the island for centuries. The landowners of the area, the Fukahori family saw the opportunity and took the lead of the Takashima mine. The need for coal increased and increased so they were looking for coal in nearby islands. That’s when they found Hashima which became the only link between the western world and Japan for a very long time. The island was bought by the Mitsubishi company which started as a sailing company, and they were mining a massive quantity of coal between 1887 and 1974. The life and work circumstances were horrible, and the weather was cruel on the island of Hashima. To protect citizens from hurricanes and typhoons, they built the first typhoon-safe concrete building of Japan in 1916. They’ve also built a wall around the island from concrete and the new silhouette of the island was reminding the locals of a japanese imperial warship. That’s why it got the name Gunkanjima, which means warship.

19. Nara Dreamland

Nara Dreamland was an amusement park inspired by Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It was build in 1961 and closed in 2006, because the lack of visitors. At the height of its success Nara Dreamland welcomed 1.6 million visitors per year, and when it closed, the number was as low as 400 thousand. But instead of trying to sell the place or use the land for something else, they’ve just abandoned it and left it completely as it was. It’s like as if you were in a post-apocalyptic movie: the ticket booths are still standing next to the ride entrances, the carriages still sit on the tracks of the rollercoasers, and even the chairs and the coffee machines are left in the restaurants.

18. Matsuo Mine

This abandoned Japanese ghost town gives us a glimpse into what can people leave behind. Matsuo Mine was a makeshift town that was build to house the working population of the Matsuo sulfur mines. It gave homes to 15,000 people and at that time, it was consideres luxurious because of its central heating, the flushing toilets and the garbage chutes. It was once called the „paradise above the clouds”, where the clouds referred to the fog that often surrounded the town. The mine closed in 1969, so the residents left the town. The eleven buildings are standing empty ever still, giving the town a post-apocalyptic ambience.

17. Wakagawa Hydropower Plant

The Hydropower Plant sits hidden among a sea of trees ont he green side of a mountain in Tohoku, Norhern Japan, with a beautiful view of the mountain river landscape. The Hydropower Plant was closed in the 1960s due to a construction of the new Yuda Dam. Since then nature has slowly started to reclaim this plot of land, leaving us with this spectacular view.

16. The White School

The Jonan Junior High School is a spectacular looking abandoned school in Japan’s countryside, often called as The White School. The common thing in Japan’s schools is that they are all made from wood ont he inside and on the outside too, to prevent or at least slow down decay. At first sight this school doesn’t even seem to be abandoned, just a closed school in the mountains. Buti f you get a closer look, it become obvious, that it is empty for years.

15. Yang Ning Hospital

This is an old structure. The hospital opened in 1910.It’s quite remarkable that it’s lasted as well as it has. Some of the medical equipment is still there as are the beds and library though the exterior has deteriorated quite badly. It’s been abandoned since 1971.

14. Stephen Griffiths School

This is an abandoned Japanese school in Nichitsu, an abandoned mining village in the mountains. To get to this village, you need to ascend through several narrow valleys. Apparently, in around 1978, the mineworkers and their families abandoned this village because the mines were no longer profitable. We have no idea who Stephen Griffiths was or is, nor why the school bears his name, but it would be interesting to find out.

13. Wonderland

This amusement park in Fukui Prefecture must have been successful in its day but it was closed down for safety reasons and a lack of visitors. There were attractions like a roller coaster, a bungee jump, go-karts, and many others. Today, it’s an eerie place; the carpark abandoned, the buildings condemned, and the once-colourful signs rusting.

12. Furuya Sokichi School

This abandoned school was inaugurated in 1952, and closed in 1998. It’s hard to tell why it was abandoned, as the desks and chairs are still in place and there’s even still writing on the blackboards, as though it was abandoned mid-lesson. It’s in a small village in Nara Prefecture .A bizarre touch is the unicycles in the corridor. Another strange thing we uncovered in our research is that it shares its name with one of Japan’s few serial killers. Whether that has anything to do with the school closing, we do not know.

11. Kuroshio Inn Hotel

The hotel is located on the upper side of the island. This must have been a magnificent hotel in its day, although now, it’s not only abandoned but a crumbling ruin. In what must have been the reception area, room keys are scattered around, and even the telephones were left behind. All quite sad for what was once clearly something special.

10. Yukio Jamaji Bowling

We don’t know why this bowling alley was abandoned as it looks as though it’s still fully equipped with bowls, pins and even shoes. We think it was abandoned about 10 years ago, but it remains a mystery.

9. Manda Coal Mine

Coal supported Japan’s industrial revolution and was the source of energy for the foundation of modern Japan. The Manda coal mine was the centerpiece of the Miike coal mine complex, located on the boarder of Arao City and neighboring Omuta City, Its two vertical shafts were some of the largest of their kind in Japan and built using all the latest techniques available in the Meiji era. The two shafts were constructed between the end of the 1800s and the early 1900s and were fully equipped with the necessary machinery and equipment. Production at the mine peaked in the early 1900s, supporting the development of industry in Japan. However, coal mining efficiency declined in the late 1900s and the predominant world energy resource shifted from coal to oil. These two factors together resulted in the end of operations at Manda in 1997.

8. Western Village

The Western Village, in Nikko, a city about 70 miles north of the capital Tokyo, is a well-known abandoned theme park in Japan. It was built in 1975 and ran successfully until 2007 when it was closed for maintenance but never re-opened. The attractions included a live Wild West show, haunted houses, and smaller buildings with western content. Now it’s a ruin, open only to urban explorers and is a famous place for them to visit in Japan.

7. Annie Chapman Love Hotel

In a little town in Chiba, there’s an abandoned Japanese sex hotel. This is an amazing small love hotel with extravagant rooms in different themes ranging from traditional to medieval… Love hotels are for couples who don’t have the privacy to get intimate at home. Rooms are rented per hour. This is a particularly small example as there are fewer than 10 bedrooms. However, they’re all quite spacious and include a dining room and bathroom. We don‘t know when or why this particular hotel was abandoned. It seems to be in quite a good state of repair.

6. Miyuki Ishikawa Sect

This abandoned temple is situated in the mountains of Ibaraki. Apparently, in 2002, a fraudulent religious cult was shut down and the temple was subsequently abandoned.  In Buddhist funerals, spirit tablets, or ihai, are used during the ceremony.to honor the departed soul which resides inside; each one represents the soul of a deceased person. Several of these have been left here, probably since the temple was abandoned. There are some strange things in other rooms, although we suspect they were left by visitors after the temple had closed.

5. Kejonuma Leisure Land

Kejonuma Leisure Land is one of the most famous place for urban exploration in Japan. This is due to its rusting Ferris wheel with flaking paint. The park opened in 1979 and was very successful, with up to 200.000 visitors per year. Apart from the famous Ferris wheel, there were other attractions such as a merry-go-round, trampolines and a six hole golf course. The park’s success was relatively short-lived, as it closed its doors for the last time in 2000, after 21 years of operation.

4. Nichitsu Ghost Town

This abandoned tin-mining village is bursting with interesting things to explore. Apart from the miners’ houses, there are two schools, a clinic, a post office and even a cinema.

3. 1963 Hospital

This abandoned Japanese hospital must have remained untouched for decades. It was built in 1918 and suspected to have closed in 1963. The main structure is wooden, and it has a rusted portico over the entrance.and. Inside, there are still  vacant beds, old medicine bottles and surgical tools lying around.

2. Hachijo Royal Hotel

Izu Island, located approximately 287 kilometers south of Tokyo, is the home of Kachijo Royal Hotel.. The island is probably most famous as a diving spot, a tiny island that no one visits anymore. We explored what was one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in Japan. This luxury hotel opened in 1963. In 1996 the Hachijo Royal Hotel reopened as the Pricia Resort, which then closed in August 2003 to re-open in 2004 as the Hachijo Oriental Resort, probably as a result of a change of ownership. When the tourism boom came to an end, the hotel struggled to attract guests and it finally closed in 2006.

1. Park Land

This is, literally, an abandoned park located in the prefecture of Gunma near a busy road. This is a kind of holiday camp with wooden chalets and a game room. A very spooky place.