The objectives of this study is to describe in detail the historical economic and sociological significance of the development and demise of the coal mining industry in Japan which sustained the basis of heavy capitalism by supplying primary energy during the 19^<th> to the mid-20^<th> Century through an example in Northeast Japan. Also we stored comparative historical records and data in a retrievable system. The above objective was accomplished through the following five steps.
(1) Construction of a large data base of micro-data regarding the careers of 89% of the workers who were once employed by the Joban Coal Mine Co.
(2) Longitudinal analysis of various careers of individual miners from the initial employment to the termination of employment.
(3) Analyses of the connection between the careers at the mine and those of the jobs after the closure of the mine and of the effect of involuntary career interruption.
(4) Construction of data base and analysis of the process of separation from work for the former miners who had once worked at the Joban Coal Mine Co..
(5) Public usage of the large-scale micro data after digitizing the various micro data.
All records of workers' employment during the late 1950s to early 60s (about 80,000 events) were digitized and a large-scale data base of the detailed careers of the entire 6,459 coal-mine workers was constructed. On the other hand, there were 4,209 workers at the mine closure in 1971. Eighty-nine percent of them, namely 3,747 people, whose careers were severed by the closure of the mine were traced and surveyed (survey completed 1,427 people (34%), survey impossible 879 people (21%), death confirmed 1,441 people (34%)). The career data of these people during employment at the mine and those after the closure of the mine were connected and a career data base for their entire lives was constructed.
The effects of involuntary interruption of careers, careers after disruption of employment, and their lives during retirement were analyzed using the above career data for the entire lives, and the results were published. A part of the large-scale micro-data base archive constructed by this study is open to the public on our website.