Hashima Island, Abandoned industrial complex on Hashima Island, Nagasaki, Japan.

Hashima Island is an abandoned coal-mining settlement about 15 kilometres from central Nagasaki, its 6.3-hectare surface ringed by a continuous concrete seawall. A long pale-grey concrete apartment block with rows of empty rectangular windows stands on the wall, with taller slab-like blocks behind it and a skeletal building of exposed floors and columns to the right. A dark rocky mound at the rear carries a small white lighthouse with a cylindrical tower and dark lantern room.

Mitsubishi Corporation acquired the site in 1890 to extract coal from undersea deposits, and the settlement grew steadily over the following decades until the complete shutdown in 1974. The closure followed the nationwide shift away from coal, which turned many mining towns into ghost settlements across the country.

The nickname Gunkanjima, 'Battleship Island', came from the island's profile resembling the battleship Tosa, then under construction at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki. At its peak the island had a cinema, a pachinko parlour, a barbershop, a hospital and a Zen temple, so residents rarely needed to leave.

Landing is permitted only through guided boat tours from Nagasaki, and a 220-metre visitor walkway opened in 2009; entry to unsafe building areas is prohibited. The city estimates landings are feasible on fewer than 160 days a year because of harsh weather, so keep spare days in your plans.

The island's nickname, Gunkanjima (Battleship Island), comes from its profile resembling the Japanese battleship Tosa, then under construction at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki. In 1945 a US submarine torpedoed and sank the coal carrier Hakuju Maru moored offshore, which gave rise to the rumour that the Americans had mistaken Hashima for a real warship.