There was a time when this town held what were called the “Five Mines” — five major coal companies sinking shafts side by side. The arrival of the railway set off full-scale mining; at the peak, when all five shafts were drawing coal at once, more than seventy-five thousand people lived along this river. But as the age’s fuel shifted from coal to oil, the shafts closed one by one, and by the early 1990s not a single underground mine was left in the town. The town of five mines has since fallen sharply, its population down toward ten thousand. Ashibetsu’s numbers are the record of a place inscribed by the rise and fall of Sorachi coal.
A city set in the central-west of Hokkaido, where a river of the Sorachi region runs. In the first half of the twentieth century the opening of the railway prompted full-scale mining here, and five major companies — later called the “Five Mines” — sank shaft after shaft, making it a leading coal town of the Sorachi coalfield. The population fell from 21,026 in 2000 to 18,899 (2005), 16,628 (2010), 14,676 (2015) and 12,555 (2020), dropping toward ten thousand over twenty years. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the label “former coal-mining region,” but the causal thread: how the rise and fall of Sorachi coal is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Ashibetsu’s numbers, seen on one page as they stand now
In the most recent Population Census the population is about thirteen thousand (12,555 in 2020). From 21,026 in 2000, through 18,899 (2005), 16,628 (2010) and 14,676 (2015), it reached 12,555 in 2020 — some eighty-five hundred fewer over twenty years, settling around ten thousand.
Look inside the figure and you see a coal town that has closed all five of its shafts. The share aged 65 and over rose from 28.5% in 2000 to 47.7% in 2020, up about nineteen points in twenty years, now nearing half the residents. Households with children stood at just 10.4% in 2020. The childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.25 in FY2023 — its own tax revenue does not reach thirty percent of expenditure, a level heavily dependent on the local allocation tax. A coal town that once exceeded seventy-five thousand across five mines, having closed every shaft, has fallen sharply toward ten thousand and aged to nearly half — that is what the numbers show. Why it took this shape cannot be read without going back through the rise and fall of Sorachi coal.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey — Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Real Estate Information Library (MLIT)
02 · The Sorachi riverside, the railway and full-scale mining, the five mines and a population of seventy-five thousand, and the closing of every shaft — the origins behind the numbers
This town’s skeleton is set down by the geography of a Sorachi riverside, by full-scale mining prompted by the opening of the railway, by the more than seventy-five thousand people the five mines gathered, and by the closure of every shaft. The first layer is the railway and the shafts. In the early twentieth century, the running of a railway that connected the neighboring area to this place prompted large-scale mining to open shafts in earnest. Soon five major companies — later called the “Five Mines” — sank shaft after shaft over little more than a decade, and the five shafts drew coal all at once. At the peak more than seventy-five thousand people lived along this river. The five mines gave rise to the town itself.
But the age’s fuel shifted. In the 1950s and 60s, as fuel for homes and factories moved from coal to oil, the five shafts closed one by one. Then in the early 1990s the last remaining shaft closed, and underground coal mining vanished from this town without exception. A town that had held as many as five mines lost all five. The Sorachi riverside, the railway and full-scale mining, the five mines and a population of seventy-five thousand, and the closing of every shaft — this town’s shape rests on the history in which, along a Sorachi river, five shafts gathered people and then every one of them departed.
Source: Ashibetsu City — the “Five Mines of Ashibetsu” (settlement began in 1893; the 1913 opening of the Takikawa–Furano railway prompted Mitsubishi Mining to begin full-scale mining, and between 1938 and 1947 five major companies — later called the “Five Mines of Ashibetsu” — sank shafts one after another, making it a leading coal town of the Sorachi coalfield, with population peaking above 75,000) / Ashibetsu City — mine closures (the 1950s–60s shift in energy from coal to oil closed many shafts; with the 1992 closure of Mitsui Ashibetsu Mining, underground coal mining vanished from Ashibetsu)
03 · In a town that closed all five shafts, the population falls sharply toward ten thousand
What characterizes Ashibetsu is that, carrying the history of the rise and fall of Sorachi coal, it has cut its population sharply toward ten thousand over twenty years. From 21,026 in 2000 to 12,555 in 2020, it lost some eighty-five hundred — nearly forty percent — in twenty years. The population that exceeded seventy-five thousand at the peak left the riverside as the five shafts closed one by one, and kept falling even after every shaft was gone. The age of the remaining households is high, and the share aged 65 and over reaching 47.7% in 2020, nearing half, is the consequence.
Meanwhile the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, but with households with children at just 10.4% in 2020, it is more accurate to read this as the flip side of there being few children waiting in the first place. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.25 is a level at which its own tax revenue does not reach thirty percent of expenditure, showing the degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. Having lost every pillar of the town’s livelihood — the five mines — the tax base stays thin. A population around ten thousand, aging nearing half, finances short of thirty percent. These three figures are not separate ailments: a peak made thick by the number of mines folded into a decline made long by the number of mines, and the three numbers simply measure that same single gradient from different angles.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey — Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A town that gathered seventy-five thousand through five mines and let all five go
Ashibetsu carries several things. One is its history as a leading coal town of the Sorachi coalfield, where, along a Sorachi river, the opening of the railway prompted large-scale mining to sink shafts in earnest, five major companies later called the “Five Mines” sank shaft after shaft, and more than seventy-five thousand people gathered. Another is its character as a place where, as the age’s fuel shifted, the five shafts closed one by one, and by the early 1990s not a single underground mine remained. And the very thickness of holding as many as five mines in one town made its peak large and the drop, when all were lost, large as well.
From the opening of the railway and full-scale mining, to the five mines, to a population of seventy-five thousand, and on to the closing of every shaft. Along the Sorachi river the five major companies sank shaft after shaft, and the five shafts drew coal all at once. Because the peak was large, the drop after all five departed is large too. Ashibetsu’s present can be read as the quiet that has settled at the bottom of that drop.
Source: Ashibetsu City — the “Five Mines of Ashibetsu” (settlement began in 1893; the 1913 opening of the Takikawa–Furano railway prompted Mitsubishi Mining to begin full-scale mining, and between 1938 and 1947 five major companies — later called the “Five Mines of Ashibetsu” — sank shafts one after another, making it a leading coal town of the Sorachi coalfield, with population peaking above 75,000) / Ashibetsu City — mine closures (the 1950s–60s shift in energy from coal to oil closed many shafts; with the 1992 closure of Mitsui Ashibetsu Mining, underground coal mining vanished from Ashibetsu) / Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC)
05 · Atlas note — the five mines are pulling on every number
Lay out Ashibetsu’s numbers and the indicators of a coal town that closed all five shafts line up at uniformly severe levels: a population down nearly forty percent in twenty years, an aging rate of 47.7%, households with children at 10.4%, a fiscal capacity of 0.25. Put in the terms of how I (Atlas) read an account ledger, what is at work here is the thickness of a history in which “one town held as many as five large mines.” Five major companies sank shaft after shaft over little more than a decade, the five shafts drew coal all at once, and more than seventy-five thousand people gathered. Because the number of mines was large, this town’s peak was large.
Follow it through and the near-forty-percent population loss, the aging nearing half, and the finances short of thirty percent do not come from separate circumstances. All of them are rooted in a single livelihood — the five mines. And that closure was not a single event but a long, continuing process in which the five shafts went dark one by one in turn. Each time a shaft closed the town lost some people, and even after the last shaft was gone, the current did not stop. Precisely because the peak was thick by five mines, the ebb dragged on long by five mines. Pressed to its core, Ashibetsu’s severe present-day numbers converge straight onto a single long rise and fall of livelihood — five shafts gathering along a river, and then departing one by one.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Ashibetsu City — the “Five Mines of Ashibetsu” (settlement began in 1893; the 1913 opening of the Takikawa–Furano railway prompted Mitsubishi Mining to begin full-scale mining, and between 1938 and 1947 five major companies — later called the “Five Mines of Ashibetsu” — sank shafts one after another, making it a leading coal town of the Sorachi coalfield, with population peaking above 75,000) / Ashibetsu City — mine closures (the 1950s–60s shift in energy from coal to oil closed many shafts; with the 1992 closure of Mitsui Ashibetsu Mining, underground coal mining vanished from Ashibetsu)
Editor’s note: all figures and sources are drawn from official statistics. The prose follows Atlas’s voice, and AI (atlas-handcrafted-reverse-v1 (Daiki 2026-06-02)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave25_d