In 1868, during the Bakumatsu period, Saga Domain and Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover, established a joint venture and excavated Japan's first Western-style vertical shaft powered by steam engines (the Hokkei-i Pit).

With the end of the national isolation policy, the demand for coal as fuel for foreign steamships calling at Nagasaki increased.

The article, entitled "The Tragedy of the Takashima Coal Mine", were published in the magazine Nihonjin (Issues 6–14) and sparked a nationwide campaign.

As a result of frequent riots by workers, the employment conditions at the Takashima coal mine were reformed in 1897.

In 1963, the 965-meter-deep Futago Shaft was completed at a cost of 16 billion yen to mine coal from deep areas, but it was abandoned in 1973 due to poor conditions which including a steep incline of 36 degrees, high temperatures and frequent gas outflows.

In addition, a dust explosion accident occurred in the same year, and the mine was closed in 1986 as part the first industrial restructuring measure to resolve trade friction between Japan and the United States.