Although Fukiya is most commonly associated with red iron oxide, it was also an important center of copper mining in years past. The staggering success of the local mining industry is recounted in a popular folk ballad that describes the riches to be made in Fukiya from digging the ground.
The Yoshioka Copper Mine have been one of the three biggest copper mines in the country. Under the stewardship of Kichizaemon Izumiya, early in the Edo period (1603-1868) it grew to become the largest copper mine in Western Japan. After that, it was acquired at the start of the Meiji era (1868-1912) by Yataro Iwasaki, who invested heavily and brought in modern Western equipment to transform it into one of Japan’s preeminent copper mines. As the first metal mine invested in by the Mitsubishi Group, the Yoshioka Copper Mine provided a template for subsequent mine development projects around the country.
Thus, the Yoshioka Copper Mine has great historical importance in terms of its role in the emergence of the influential Sumitomo and Mitsubishi industrial conglomerates in Japan. In 2007 it was added to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry register of heritage properties related to industrial modernization.

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