In company baths miners soap and rinse, as Japanese etiquette demands, before soaking in hot water pools.

Day in darkness ends for mine workers emerging from a shift in the Ishikari coalfield, Hokkaido's largest.

Author: Michael Yamashita

©Michael Yamashita

Photo size: 17.5 Mpixels (50 MB uncompressed) - 5101x3427 pixels (17.0x11.4 in / 43.2x29.0 cm at 300 ppi)

Photo keywords: coal miners, coalfield, emerge, Gathering, Group, Hokkaido, Hokkaido-Japan's Last Frontier, Ishikari coalfield, Japan, Japan's Last Fronteir, men, mine, miners, National Geographic, People, shift, workers, working

Published in: Japan, Hokkaido, Hokkaido: Japan's Last Frontier