Ikeshima Island, Japan

池島

Jon Olsen and Brandon Margetts

History

Ikeshima Island was the last coal mine island in Kyushu. In

1913, Mitsui Mining company bought the area on a small
island in Nagasaki for coal mining. The excavation started in
1959. In 1985, the coal production reached its highest point
of over 1.5mil tons. Due to the cheap coal from overseas,
the coal mine was shut down in November 2001, around
2,500 workers were all let go.

Now, there are less than 130 people on an island full of

decayed buildings.
The Problem

With the coal mine no longer running, and hardly anyone

living on the island. Living conditions have worsened over
the years. The infrastructure has basically collapsed. The
electricity, water are all in bad condition. With Japan
leading in solar panel production, solar energy could help
the infrastructure of the island.
Characteristics

The main symptoms of the problem are,

unreliable electricity, old broken
buildings, and general lack of
infrastructure. The island of Ikeshima
has been abandoned since 2001, since
then the island has been falling apart.
How do we expect to get any visitors or
permanent residents without any
working power.
Stakeholders
The groups that would be affected by
new infrastructure are current and
future residents. The infrastructure
getting an upgrade would affect the
current residents by helping them get
power and making their day to day life
easier then before, with power and
reliable shelter they could live a
relatively normal life, until there are
more jobs on the island. Increasing
infrastructure would affect the future
residents by offering them jobs fixing
up the buildings and roads they would
have to stay on the island while
working there everyday, so the
population would increase.
Policies & Politics
To make our solution work we
would have to get the
government on board with
paying for all the construction
work for fixing the buildings and
temporary shelter and utilities
for the workers renovating the
buildings, also tax breaks and
low interest loans for businesses
getting started on the island. The
Japanese government could give
tax breaks and the specific
action could be business in the
specified location.
Resources

We would need to
talk to the Japanese
government about
our problem. The
government would
have to commit their
capital to fund the
project, just just an
estimate, we would
need around
$1,000,000
(¥11,374,200) and
around 2 years for
production.
History of Solutions
After the coal mine shut down in 2001, nothing I could find
has been done to this island.
 Criteria Chart

Solution 1 Solution 2 Solution 3 Solution 4 Solution 5

Improve Infrastructure Rebuild residential Rebuild commercial Tear down New sources of
buildings buildings decaying/abandoned energy
buildings

Electric/ Utilities Solar panels Wind turbines

Clean Water Improve ground water Improve rainfall

collection system collection system

Ferry System/ New ferries Add more trips to and New roads on island
Transportation from island

Increase Tourism Open museum on coal Add more ferry trips to

mining and history of and from island with a
island. consistent schedule
Solar panels can cost anywhere from $13,000 to
$20,000 to produce. (¥1,478,672- ¥2,274,880)
Yes We Can

Japan is the leading country of the production of photovoltaics, which convert sunlight into energy. With
companies like Mitsubishi Electric, Sanyo, Sharp Solar and Toshiba contributing the manufacturing of
solar energy.

Solar power has become an important national priority since the country's shift in policies toward
renewable energy after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. Japan was the world's second
largest market for solar PV growth in 2013 and 2014.