Society | Jan 26

'Battleship' island in southwestern Japan to reopen to tourists Feb. 1

Jan 26 (Kyodo) - Hashima Island in the southwestern Japan city of Nagasaki, better known as "battleship island" for its shape, will reopen to tourists on Feb. 1 after a typhoon-damaged pier and fences in a sightseeing area have been repaired, the local government said Friday.

The tiny deserted island with an abandoned coal mine and apartment buildings for mine workers and their families is one of the constituent assets of a World Cultural Heritage site representing Japan's industrialization in the late 19th to early 20th centuries.

Hashima is a popular tourist sight receiving some 300,000 visitors annually. It has been closed for sightseeing since October.

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