A landing ban on uninhabited Hashima Island, better known as Gunkanjima, or Warship Island, located some 19 km off the city of Nagasaki, was lifted Wednesday for the first time in 35 years as more and more people have become interested in its ruins.
The landing ban on Gunkanjima, which takes its name from its concrete sea walls and high-rise structures that are said to resemble a warship, was imposed in 1974 when its coal mine closed and the island was abandoned.
The 6.3-hectare, 480-meter-long island at its peak had some 5,200 workers and their families living in a tight jumble of apartment blocks, which include the country's first high-rise made of reinforced concrete.