Just transitions at the local level: insights from coal communities in Japan

ABSTRACT International scholarship and policy advice is gaining interest in understanding what a just transition means for communities, the lived environment and sense of place. At the same time, Japan is facing increasing pressure to accelerate its progress towards decarbonisation, which has implications for regions within Japan that rely on carbon-intensive industries for employment and economic sustainability. Previous experience within Japan of the phase-out of domestical coal extraction, and the impacts of this historical transition on host communities, has the potential to yield rich insights into how the social and cultural implications of a just transition can be managed both in Japan and globally. However, much of the existing place-based scholarship in this field has been undertaken in Japanese, and has not been published in English. The purpose of this viewpoint is therefore to summarise recent academic and policy research into a just transition in Japan, and draw insights from three former coal producing regions that have been impacted by coal phase-out in different ways: Tagawa in Kyushu, Iwaki in north-east Japan, and Yubari in Hokkaido. Our synthesis draws out several factors from the Japanese cases that contribute to “successful” just transitions at the local level: early and comprehensive planning and cooperation between different sectors; the need for leadership and vision from the local level rather than reliance on central government financial support for a transition; and the importance of social protection measures in avoiding stigma and sustaining a sense of community identity.


Introduction
Against a backdrop of growing interest in what just transitions may look like in different global contexts (e.g.Malik and Bertram 2022;Pai, Harrison, and Zerriffi 2020;UNFCCC 2020), and growing interest in what a just transition means for community, the lived environment and sense of place (Lee, Hengesbaugh, and Amanuma 2023;Raymond, Stedman, and Frantzeskaki 2023), Japan has the potential to make valuable contributions to the international literature.At the national level, Japan is facing growing pressure to phase out coal power due to its obligations under the Paris Agreement and pressure from fellow G7 members.Yet nationwide, Japan has a number of municipalities which continue to be dependent on revenue from thermal power stations, and where an ageing population, declining workforce and shrinking local tax base limit the power of local governments to act.Moreover, there are also numerous localities in Japan where coal mining has closed rapidly within the last century, to varying degrees of impact on host communities.These case studiesand the conceptually-driven literature which underpins themhave the potential to act as analogues internationally for understanding the impacts of rapid fossil fuel transitions on the local environment for communities reliant on carbon-intensive industries, who are also facing multiple challenges relating to ageing and declining populations.However, whilst there is an emergent body of research at the national level looking at equity and just transitions in Japan from a policy analysis (Hartwig, Emori, and Asayama 2023) or a labour force and energy system data perspective (Fraser and Chapman 2020;Kuriyama and Abe 2021), in-depth place-based analysis of how just transitions may inform community and sense of place is lacking in the English-language scholarly literature.
The purpose of this viewpoint is therefore to synthesise existing Japanese-language literature into just transitions, and then to draw out insights into how previous coal transitions impacted on communities within Japan in a way that adds granularity and context to what is already known about Japan's carbon-intensive localities in the English language literature.We focus in particular on qualitative research in Japanese drawn from three localities experiencing different kinds of coal transitions: Tagawa City in Chikuho, Kyushu, an early example of a coal transition which became problematic locally; Iwaki City in Fukushima, which is considered a "successful" example of an industrial transition in Japan; and Yubari City in Hokkaido, which is often viewed nationally and globally as a disastrous coal closure, but on closer inspection can yield valuable insights into what a just transition means for the everyday lived environment.Throughout the text, we draw on a breadth of citations written in Japanese.To enable readers to find the original texts, we have provided the Japanese titles and a provisional translation in a table as Supplementary Data.
2. Just transitions in Japan: charting the concept

Just transitions in Japanese context
Just transitionusually translated as kousei na ikou (公正な移行)is mentioned by the Japanese Government as part of its Long-Term Strategy Under the Paris Agreement, as published in October 2021.However, the term is only used in the context of transitioning workforces and economies, and whilst the local perspective is mentioned, this is limited to consideration of local businesses and their effect on the local economy (Government of Japan, 2021).The potential impacts of transitions on local societies and cultures are not mentioned.The Japanese Government also maintains an inventory of local government declarations to reach zero-carbon (https://www.env.go.jp/policy/zerocarbon.html).Although there are at the time of writing no local governments that explicitly include the phrase 公正な移行 in their policy summaries (although that is not to say that they do not consider just transitions in their full plans), there are some local authorities (e.g.Hirono Town in Fukushima Prefecture) who discuss transitioning workers in carbon-intensive sectors to renewable energy (Hirono Town 2021), and others (e.g.Saikai City in Nagasaki Prefecture) who discuss linking local shipbuilding and its workforce to new offshore wind developments (Saikai City 2022).
The nascent status of just transitions thinking among government, policy and NGO actors in Japan is reflected in scholarly research on the topic.Within the English-language literature, there has been interest in the equity and fairness dimensions of energy transitions in Japan.For instance, in an initial spatial analysis of energy transitions in Japan, Kuriyama and Abe (2021) find that decarbonisation of the energy sector in Japan may support stable jobs in rural areas, thereby supporting local rural economies, and may also reduce inequalities in the working age population.The idea that different areas of Japan may be more likely to see benefits from rapid development of renewables due to socio-economic factors, and that in some regions the renewable transition may be less equitable than others, has also been the subject of enquiry (Fraser 2019;Fraser and Chapman 2020).
Yet at a national level, issues of justice arguably remain inadequately considered within Japan's energy strategies (Hartwig, Emori, and Asayama 2023).
Nonetheless there are also Japanese language texts which refer explicitly to just transitions in a Japanese context, as well as more specific research into place-based historical analogues of industrial transitions that will be discussed in a subsequent section.Sasaki (2020) for instance argues that whilst overseas just transition experiences may not be directly comparable to the closure of fossil fuel-fired power stations in Japan, there are nonetheless important overlaps and learning points.Sasaki holds that when thermal power stations are closed, there is an imperative to consider not only energy issues but also the impacts on local governments and local economies due to declines in tax revenues, and also calls for cooperation between local governments, trade unions, industry and civil society organisations to ensure that nobody is left behind during Japan's coal phase-out.In a short column, Mizuho Research (2020) similarly advocate for consideration of the impacts of coal phase-out on regional economies and employment, but also suggest that a just transition, if managed appropriately, may present new opportunities for jobs and economic growth in regions.Oguma (2018), writing in his role as a representative of the Japan Trade Union Confederation, suggests in broad terms that a just transition for Japan may be necessary for workers in the electric power, steel, paper/pulp, and fossil fuel mining, transportation and distribution sectors, and that there is a need for Japan to cooperate and learn internationally on implementation of a just transition.
It is also worth noting research by NGOs in Japan, which gives additional insight beyond some of the issues reported in English-language research and also illustrates the evidence base and civil society drivers behind just transition action in Japan.Japanese environmental NGO Kiko Network, a group with a strong focus on expediting the phase-out of Japanese coal-power domestically and overseas, in autumn 2021 published a report on what a just transition may mean for Japan (Kiko Network 2021).Kiko Network estimates that 151,000 workers are employed in fossil fuel and energy-intensive industrial sectors in Japan, contributing 4,510 Billion Yen (approximately £25 billion) to the national economy.The Kiko Network report suggests that the closures of coal-fired power stations, steelworks and car manufacturing plants show the need for policy measures to support a just transition in Japan; and that Japan's experience with the closure of coal mines offers insights for what a just transition requires in a Japanese context.Kiko Network point out that early planning, collaboration between national and local governments and industry and trade unions, and follow-up consultations with workers all contributed to a successful transition for at least some parts of Japan's coal industry.Climate Integrate, another Japanese environmental NGO, similarly argue that the existing just transition measures proposed by the Japanese Government do not go far enough to address closure of thermal power plants, and that local governments in communities currently hosting thermal (and indeed nuclear) power plants have yet to grasp how the energy transition will affect local economies and employment (Climate Integrate 2023).Climate Integrate hence call for a national strategy for a just transition in Japan, encompassing nationwide surveying of host communities on the impacts of phase-out of thermal power, support measures for job training, and support for development of zero-carbon industries; as well as opportunities for dialogue across sectors and financial support from national and local governments.
2.2.Historical analogues for just transitions in Japan: coal transitions from a labour studies and sociological/anthropological perspective Despite limited empirical engagement with contemporary just transitions, there is a rich body of Japanese-language research into the local societal impacts of coal mining closures, which may act as a useful analogue for understanding a just transition within Japan and for making sense of the lived experience of energy transitions in the local environment more broadly.Japan's coal industry emerged in the late nineteenth Century to support modernisation and development of heavy industries.Coal mining reached its peak in the late 1940s, before demand declined in the wake of the post-war economic recession and the liberalisation of heavy oil imports.The national government developed a "scrap-and-build" policy that aimed to increase competitiveness and reduce costs, by making a distinction between coal mines to be expanded through government investment and mines that were to be left as they were or closed down early (Shimazaki 2015).This policy caused coal operations in some localities to be downsized and rationalised, with a large number of workers losing their jobs.To support former coal-producing regions and especially laid-off workers, the government developed legislation for actions such as recovery of mining damage, job creation, and revitalisation of the local economy.This started in 1952 and continued until 2001.
A breadth of social science disciplines including economics, history and sociology have studied the Japanese coal transition, notably through associations such as the Japan Association for the Study of Former Coalfields (JAFCOF).For instance, labour studies have focused on the labour movement and union resistance to mine closures, as well as the impacts on the laid-off workers and their families.A notable branch of study has articulated the data and records of coal workers and traced the socioeconomic impacts on their lives before and after the mine closures.In particular, Waseda University has archived a large amount of longitudinal data on coal workers, especially from the Joban region in Fukushima Prefecture since the 1950s, and has conducted sociological research into the lifecourse of coal workers and their families.For example, the research project initiated at Waseda by Kanji Masaoka has conducted a survey of around 5,000 laid-off coal workers, and compiled data on their occupational careers and families for more than 30 years before and after leaving the mines.The series of "Tanko rodosha no heizan rishoku to kyaria no saikeisei [Coal mine workers' displacement due to mine closures and career rebuilding]" was published in ten parts from 1998-2007.Existing research shows the transition impacts on Japan's former coal regions are diverse and interlinked.Hirana et al. (1998) conducted comprehensive research in the Chikuho region, carefully describing the socioeconomic impacts on the region including on finance, health, education, social welfare, crime, and human rights.After coal mine closures, many young and skilled coal workers moved out for reemployment, leaving older and disabled workers in the region.This demographic shift raised the need for social welfare services and also increased rates of crime and alcoholism due to the uncertainty and loss of community bonds (Hirana et al. 1998).Moreover, people and communities who had suffered marginalisation and stigmatisation faced compounded difficulties relating to poverty, reemployment and education (Hirana et al. 1998).A clear implication here is that as marginalised communities are affected the most by transitions, the root cause of injustices need to be clarified and climate policy interventions should be developed with a justice lens.

Place-based transitions: the case of Japan's coal-mining regions
To understand what the social and cultural impacts of energy transitions may be in Japan at the local level, we look to three historical analogues of coal mining closures from different geographical regions of Japan: Tagawa City in Kyushu; Iwaki City in north-east mainland Japan; and Yubari City in Hokkaido (see Figure 1).Although these cases are not unknown in the international literature, Japanese-language scholarship provides deeper and richer insight into the nuances of the cases, and offers practical insights into how place-based approaches to just transitions may be managed in Japan and beyond in the present day.

Tagawa City
Tagawa City is located on the southern Kyushu island of Japan, approximately 50 km south-east of Fukuoka City, with a population of approximately 48,000 people.Tagawa developed as one of the central areas in the Chikuho coal field in the Kyushu region, which used to be the largest coal producing area since the operation of major capital coal companies in the nineteenth Century.Rationalisation and coal mine closure started in the region in the 1950s.In Tagawa City, the major coal mines closed in 1964 followed by the termination of small-and medium size mines, despite an intensive labour resistance movement by trade unions and petitions to the national government by the local governments in the region.The closure of mining had a devastating impact on Tagawa and the Chikuho region, bringing issues such as poverty, job loss, decrease of tax revenue, and loss of community bonds and social capital.
The Chikuho region faced coal mine closure earlier than other coal-producing areas.Since the closures occurred before national measures were put in place, many miners initially lost their jobs, making their lives extremely difficult in poverty.The devastation in Chikuho became nationally known, partly due to the media coverage and visualisations of the situation via movies and pictures such as the photobook "Children of Chikuho" by a well-known photographer Ken Domon (1960).Against this backdrop, a nationwide movement to support coal-producing areas expanded in the form of, for example, charity campaigns (Kuroi hane undou) (Fujino 2019) and a "caravan" movement of educational support for children by students from Christian-based universities (Allen 1994).
Tagawa, like other municipalities, received national support to help coal miners and to rebuild the local economy until the expiration in 2001 of the support legislation put in place for former mining regions by the national government.Tagawa City Government tried to shift the dark and dirty image of coal mines to that of a green and clean city, by creating an industrial park in a bid to attract new industries (Mitsumoto 2007).Tagawa and the wider Chikuho area has also been studied as a former coal region through multiple initiatives.As one of the regeneration policies, a public university -Fukuoka Prefectural Universitywas situated in the city, andresearch related to the coal mines has been conducted into topics such as the Christian-based movements (for example Hosoi 2023 ), the issue of social stigma and human rights.Given the historically high proportion of burakumin (a group of people who have faced discrimination and stigmatisation because of ancestral associations with caste systems) in the Chikuho region, several scholars such as Tetsuo Mahara and Senichi Moriyama have conducted research on their history, liberalisation, and the role of social education; and on stigmatisation of labourers forcibly taken from Korea or China (e.g.Moriyama 1995).Mitsumoto (2007) conducted detailed research on the transition of narratives of public policies after the mine closure.Another initiative to document the societal impacts of coal mine closures in Tagawa is the bottom-up movement of researchers and citizens initiated by the city's library (Local history study group or Kyodo shi kenkyukai in Japanese), studying the local history and preserving documents relating to the coal mining industry (see Figure 2).Tagawa City Coal Mining Historical Museum, opened in 1983, has also played an important role for re-evaluation of coal mines as industrial heritage.In 2011, coal mine paintings by Sakubei Yamamoto, a coal miner and painter, were registered as the first Memory of the World by UNESCO in Japan.This locally-initiated research and collection of coal archives contributed to the World Heritage listing.
Tagawa City has not been explicitly considered in the context of just transitions, either in English or Japanese language scholarship.However, Japanese-language scholarship does help to create a rich picture of the lived experience of coal transitions in the region, and also of the role that social sciences and humanities can play in supporting community-led activities to re-evaluate local heritage and retain a sense of place and community as a coal city.

Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture
Iwaki is located about 200 km north-east of Tokyo, with a population of approximately 340,000 over an area of 1,232 square kilometres.This makes Iwaki the tenth-largest city in Japan by geographical area.Coal mining in Iwaki developed over the later part of the nineteenth Century and into the twentieth Century.Despite the low grade of coal produced, the proximity of the Joban Coalfield to the Tokyo metropolitan area meant it remained an important part of Japan's energy system into the post-war period.According to statistics kept by Iwaki City Government, over 8,500 people (some 6.5% of the total municipal workforce) were employed directly in coal mining in 1965; and over 6,400 people (4.3% of the total municipal workforce) were still employed directly in coal mining the year before the last mine on the Joban Coalfield was closed in 1976 (Iwaki Center for Creation of the Future 2006).
Nonetheless, despite the presence of a large coal-mining workforce, over 90% of coal workers were able to transition to other forms of employment alongside the closure of the mines in the 1960s and 70s, with redundancies starting from the mid-1950s.Shimazaki (2013) explains that the establishment of systems to promote job creation, engagement with industry, and employment counselling led to this success in former coal workers finding alternative employment.A particular strength of the transition for carbon-intensive workers in Iwaki was the diversity of industries available for workers and their families to transition to, with opportunities in tourism and leisure, power generation, and in manufacturing.As such, present-day Iwaki has a diverse employment base and has avoided the dramatic population decline and financial issues seen in Yubari (described in section 3.3), and may be considered an example of how to effectively transition a workforce and the economic base of a locality dependent on fossil fuels.However, the extent to which this may be considered an environmentally just transition is much more open to question, especially given that the Nakoso Power Station remains in operation with 270 staff (Rikunabi n.d.), (and, indeed, has recently been renewed and upgraded to a coal gasification combined cycle) and that the large Hirono thermal power plant in neighbouring Futaba District remains a notable employer with over 720 employees as of 2018 (Liberal Democratic Party Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly Members' Group 2018) (Figure 3).Iwaki presents an interesting example of a local coal transition in Japan, in that itsuperficially at leastappears to tell a positive story in terms of the opportunities presented to the workforce and the subsequent fortunes of the locality following the closure of coal operations.Some of the reasons why Iwaki was able to transition more successfully appear to be related to issues of policy and governancein particular, early planning and cooperation to support a managed transition away from coal.The first factor was vision of key individuals and cooperation.The Vice-President of the Joban Coal Mine Corporation -Yutaka Nakamuraalong with other figures locally recognised early the need for alternative industries and employment sources to replace coal mining (Shimazaki 2010).Cooperation between industries, unions and local governments hence led to the establishment of a tourism sector and to the construction of a power station, as well as consultation with coal workers themselves.The second factor was local government consolidation and reorganisation.
Fourteen municipalities were merged into a single unit -Iwaki Cityin 1966, which allowed greater coordination and cooperation across the Joban Coalfield area to be able to identify problems and develop (and finance) solutions (Taira 2022).A third factor was the ownership structure of carbonintensive industries.Coal operations in Iwaki were mainly controlled by a single organisation with a significant commitment to the sustainability of the local area, and which continued to exist after the end of mining (Iwama 1982).The Joban Coal Mine Corporation, later rebranded Joban Kosan, today remains the main operator of the Hawaiians Spa Resort, and a shareholder in the Nakoso Power Station.
It is also true, however, that Iwaki was able to benefit from favourable geographical and economic conditions, which presented more opportunities for a just transition.Iwaki had a diverse economic base (via agriculture and fisheries) and high standard of living prior to the commencement of coal mining; proximity to Tokyo (less than 3 hours by train) and hence easy access to national-level expertise plus visitors for tourism; and favourable economic conditions at the time (i.e.Japan's economic "Bubble" of the 1970s and 80s) which allowed development of other industries in the vicinity such as petrochemicals and electricity generation (Nakazawa 2012).
Iwaki is hence viewed within Japanese-language scholarship as a relatively successful coal transition in terms of benefits to the workforce and local economy, and indeed offers valuable insights about the policy and governance frameworks that can enable a managed transition.The extent to which this can be considered a "just" transition with regard to building a local "green" economy is, however, more open to question.

Yubari City, Hokkaido
Yubari City is located in Sorachi Subprefecture in south-central Hokkaido, in the northern part of Japan.Its population is currently around 6,500 people, compared to a peak of just under 120,000 in the 1960s when mining was at its peak.Indeed, within the international English-language literature, Yubari is relatively well-known as a case of rapid population decline and urban shrinkage following the closure of the last mine in the city in the early 1990s (e.g.Martinez-Fernandez et al. 2012;Seaton 2010).Within this literature, the lack of long-term strategy in the immediate aftermath of the final closure of coal mines in Yubari and the municipal bankruptcy that ensued in 2007 are well known, which may lead one to believe that Yubari is an example of an un-just transition for a Japanese city reliant on carbon-intensive industries.
The lack of foresight around the winding-down of mining in Yubari is indeed noted in Japanese literature, Nakata (1982) expressing concern over population decline in Yubari and the state of land post-closure at a time when mining was still in operation.Bi-Matsui (2015) similarly provides in-depth historical analysis from the time, illustrating the damaging effects of the Japanese central government's "scrap and build" policies in allowing coal companies to invest heavily in tourism whilst leaving a legacy of debt and infrastructure to Yubari City.Japanese-language texts provide additional insight into how the closure of Yubari's mines altered daily lives of residents through changes in the built environment, decline of culturally significant activities, and loss of industry as a marker of identity (Seki 1992;Toda 1985).These texts build on what is known internationally about Yubari, by illustrating how the transition away from coal was a social and cultural transition as well as an economic and population-based one.
What is less well acknowledged in English-language literature, yet discussed more broadly in Japanese-language scholarship, are the efforts that have taken place in Yubari over the last decade or so to ensure the social and environmental sustainability of the lived environment.A notable strand of this research has concerned the engagement of residents of Yubari in dialogue over the future urban form of their city (Setoguchi et al. 2014;Setoguchi et al. 2016).An important part of Yubari's vision to be able to maintain provision of social services to a declining and ageing population with limited financial resources is the consolidation of the city's population in a central areayet doing so entails discussions over relocation of communities.The study of Setoguchi et al. (2016) in particular illustrates how these delicate conversations were broached with residents through early engagement and listening to residents' concerns, in cases using university students and researchers as intermediaries to facilitate dialogue (Figure 4).
Texts in Japanese also illustrate, however, that questions of relocation and shrinkage extend beyond coal mining to encompass energy narratives in Yubari more broadly.Current-day resettlement of former mining housing in Yubari, for instance, comes against a longer history of residents of the Kashima and O-Yubari areas being relocated to make way for construction of the Shuparo Dam in the 1990s (Yubari Shuparo Dam Furusato Magazine Editorial Committee 1998).Yubari City Government has also declared its intention to become a zero-carbon city, in line with other municipalities in Japan (Yubari City 2023).However, small-scale coal processing operations, which extract and process smaller pieces of coal from slag heaps, still continue in the city (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism 2014).
In sum, whilst the shrinking and financially challenging nature of post-coal Yubari is well known in extant English-language literature, what is perhaps missing is some of the social and cultural context within which these economic challenges have happened.Especially prominent in Japaneselanguage texts is the idea that a just transition also necessitates a transition for the built and lived environment, and that changes precipitated by closure of coal mining happen against a wider backdrop of social and economic change in the locality.

Synthesis
Table 1 summarises the key insights from Japanese-language research into the three post-coal areas, organised along the six characteristics of a just transition as identified by the UNFCCC (2020), which themselves are derived from the International Labor Organization (2015) guidelines on a just transition and hence emphasise the needs of workers, unions, and the places they live in.We use these six categories as a point of departure for reflecting on what the Japanese cases can tell us about just transitions for carbon-intensive regions more widely.
The regional transitions in Tagawa, Iwaki and Yubari have limited relevance with mitigation policy in that all three pre-date Japan's climate commitments.However, Iwaki and to a lesser extent Yubari illustrate the need to ensure workers and places do not simply transition to economic activities that may be non-sustainable in other ways.Iwaki still has two large thermal power stations within its locality (albeit has more recently developed industrial capacity in offshore wind turbine manufacturing), whereas Yubari retains small-scale coal processing.Yubari also shows the danger of the rhetoric of just transitions being co-opted to justify the short-to medium-term continuation of environmentally harmful activities.For instance, whilst Yubari has signalled its intention to become a zero carbon city in line with the steer from national government (Yubari City 2023), the city's coal-mining identity and the fact that there are still businesses and workers in the city employed in coal extraction (albeit at small scale) has in cases been deployed to argue for a "just transition" that represents a slower pathway to decarbonisation (see e.g.Sato 2022 for a summary of these arguments in local press).
Early assessment of impact was conducted thoroughly for Iwaki and to a lesser extent Yubari, and much less for Tagawa with it being one of the first closures.A history in Japan of looking to hide regions' coal mining past (Nakazawa 2012) may have meant that opportunities for mutual learning between regions were limited.Moreover, more than assessment of impact, the divergent fortunes of Iwaki and Yubari post-closure show that there is a need for the early planning of actions toward a just transition.Indeed, evidence of training and skill development was much more prominent in Iwaki and was supported by early identification of key issues by industry and local government.What is worth noting, though, is that Iwaki may have been aided in this regard by geographical proximity to Tokyo as a major centre of expertise.Ability to both assess impacts and develop training and skills may hence depend not only on competencies within the locality, but also on proximity and ability for carbon-intensive regions to access external expertise.Consultation and social dialogue similarly differs across cases, from more adversarial approaches to closures (Tagawa, Yubari) to a more dialogue-based and cooperative approach (Iwaki).What the Japanese-language scholarship adds to what is known internationally is the highly emotive nature of the issues at stake.The powerful photographic accounts of Toda (1985) and Seki (1992) from Yubari, showing union representatives bringing protest signs into negotiations with corporate executives, illustrate that carbon-intensive industries can be markers of pride and identity as well as employment.The Yubari case in particular thus illustrates the importance of attention to emotion and to protecting sense of local identity within consultations.In a similar vein, the powerful accounts of poverty and stigmatisation in Tagawa and the wider Chikuho region (Allen 1994) and also Yubari (Toda 1985) illustrate that social protection and security under a just transition ought to extend beyond welfare payments to ensuring formerly carbon-intensive regions and the people living in them can sustain a sense of purpose and pride under the transition to a sustainable economy.
Lastly, the three cases illustrate the diverse forms that post assessment of the effect can take.Both Iwaki and Tagawa show the role of university research in place-based or longitudinal studies into the effects of the closure of industries, in a way that can enable other places both domestically and internationally to learn from previous and ongoing transitions.The diversity of anthropological and qualitative research which has been undertaken in Yubari since the 1990s, meanwhile, shows the value of qualitative and narrative-type research in providing a powerful account of the lived experience of a just transition over time.Such qualitative and ethnographic accounts may be as important in assessing the long-term effects of a transition on sense of place and identity as quantitative demographic and socio-economic analyses.

Conclusion
In this viewpoint, we have sought to build on existing international thought on just transitions at the community level, and on emergent English-language research into what a just transition means in the Japanese context, by providing a deeper dive into Japanese-language literature into just transitions and transitions for communities reliant on carbon-intensive industries.We first reviewed more conceptual Japanese-language research into just transitions, illustrating that the fate of workers and communities currently engaged in thermal power is a critical component of just transitions thought in Japanespecially as Japan faces growing pressure to phase-out coal power from the G7 and its commitments under the Paris Agreement.We also illustrated that issues of local transitions from thermal power in Japan come against a much longer backdrop of social science research into the effects of a transition away from domestic coal as an energy source from the 1960s onwards.
Our review then focused on adding granularity to what is known in English-language literature about three specific examples of the impacts of transitions away from coal at the local level: Tagawa, Iwaki, and Yubari.The aim in doing so was to contribute to international understanding of how previous energy transitions have been managed (or not) at the local level in Japan, by giving deeper insight into the social impacts of analogous transitions in the past within Japan.This synthesis brought out two overarching points which in particular can contribute to international discussions on local-level just transitions.First is that whilst substantive support from the national level is an important part of initiating a just transition, this must not lead to ongoing dependency on national support.The cases of Tagawa and Yubari in particular illustrate that although topdown national support may mitigate the impact of coal phase-out in the short term, it does not in itself help to develop independent, sustainable and resilient communities without appropriate leadership and vision at the local level of the kind seen in Iwaki.Second is the question of social stigma, and how a "just" transition must also be undertaken in a way that avoids stigmatisation for former carbon-intensive regions.This was especially prevalent with negative images of poverty and stigmatisation of migrant workers in Tagawa and the Chikuho region, and also through the continual portrayal of Yubari as a "dying" city in national and international media through repeated use of images of abandoned and decaying buildings.The Japanese cases thus illustrate how enacting a just transition may entail a sense of responsibility on the part of researchers, governments and the media not to narrate or illustrate places and the people living in them in a way that may create or perpetuate stigmatisation.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Case study cities and their location within Japan.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Former coal mining infrastructure preserved as a cultural heritage site and integrated into the lived environment in Yumoto, Iwaki City (photo: Leslie Mabon).

Table 1 .
Insights from Japanese-language empirical literature for just transition principles.