For example, it is no exaggeration to say that the coal industry once stood at the center of industry and the economy as the most important primary energy supply industry supporting Japan’s energy needs. However, the coal industry rapidly lost its competitiveness due to the energy revolution that began in the 1950s. Coal came to be positioned as a high-cost, inefficient energy source due to the rise of oil as a new energy source.

This change was not just a problem for business management; it had serious impacts on entire local communities. In regions that were particularly dependent on the coal industry, various problems emerged, such as increased unemployment due to mine closures, stagnation of the local economy, and population outflow.
In response to this serious situation, the government aimed to reduce the social impact of the rapid decline of the coal industry and pursue a more gradual “phased withdrawal.” Financial assistance, re-employment support, regional development measures, and other steps for companies, communities, coal industry workers, and local governments were introduced, and these policies continued for about 40 years. What the case of the coal industry demonstrates is that the larger the industry, and the more important it is to the local economy, the more extreme the shock caused by its decline. Therefore, the question of how to minimize the damage to people’s livelihoods and the local economy caused by the sudden collapse of an industry, i.e., “how to manage decline,” becomes a major issue.

On the other hand, those who receive assistance also face various challenges. A certain period of time must be provided to achieve a soft landing. During that time, minimal support is continued to allow companies and regions to survive. The aim is to buy time and search for the next path, but if it’s assumed that support will definitely continue for a certain period, there’s also an aspect where this gradually becomes taken for granted. One could express this as support dependency becoming normalized. Support to prevent disastrous damage is always necessary as part of declining industry policies, but when aid to overcome immediate difficulties continues, it may ultimately slow down the speed of making decisions to withdraw or moving toward new paths. Even if support is initially planned to end in 10 years, when we actually look at the situation after 10 years, the judgment becomes “if we cut off aid here, it will collapse” and “since this policy was started to prevent collapse, we need to continue.” We can start it, but we can’t find an exit strategy. Determining the time to end support in a way that aligns with the original purpose is also extremely difficult.
Of course, declining industries and regions also have a strong sense of crisis. For example, in the former coal mining area of Hokkaido’s Yubari City, which experienced financial collapse due to failed large investments in tourism facilities, they actively aimed to create new regional industries by leveraging an environment where funds could be raised under favorable conditions through support policies. In the backdrop of such investments, there was likely a strong sense of crisis about the future of the region. However, it’s likely that precisely due to the strong sense of crisis, excessive investments—dependent on government policies aimed at softening the shock of decline—were made, leading ultimately to fiscal collapse.
While dependence and a sense of crisis give a strong impression of being in opposition, in declining industries and regions, these two coexist. Which one appears more strongly differs depending on the timing and situation, but the combination of dependence and a sense of crisis can also give rise to new problems.