Eerie pics show Japan’s abandoned ‘ghost island’ where James Bond’s Skyfall was filmed after being left to rot for 40 years

AN tiny island in Japan that has been left abandoned for decades is now a cult tourist attraction, helped by it featuring as a lair for a James Bond villain.

Hashima Island, commonly called Gunkanjima, is an abandoned 16 acre island lying just over nine miles from Nagasaki, in southern Japan.

At its height in 1959, the island was home to some 5,300 people, including slave labourers, who worked in coalmines below the seabed and lived in high-rise apartments that covered most of the island.

The first high-rise building on the island was built in 1916, a seven-floor concrete apartment block, for the miners.

Over the years more high-rise buildings went up and a school, hospital, town hall and a community centre were also built, along with a cinema, swimming pool and rooftop gardens.

The island was owned by Mitsubishi until 2002 when it was voluntarily transferred to Takashima Town.

Due to the high-rise buildings the island is said to looked like a battleship, which in Japanese is Gunkanjima.

The island became abandoned after the coalmine was closed down in the mid 1970s but interest in the location has picked up over the years as a tourist attraction for fans of industrial ruins and tourists were officially allowed there in 2009 but still most of the island is still off-limits during visits due to safety concerns.

Interest increased thanks to the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall as it was used as the hideout for villain Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem.

The 2013 Thai horror film Hashima Project was also filmed there.

An undersea coal mine was established in 1887 but in 1974, with the reserves running out it was closed and the residents soon left, leaving the island effectively abandoned for three decades.

Interest in the island though in the 2000s due to its historic ruins and has now become a tourist attraction.

The island was approved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2015.