Historical vegetation resurveys, including the resurvey of historical permanent/semi-permanent plots and the retrospective use of vegetation maps and aerial photographs, can be a powerful tool for predicting the responses of species, communities, and ecosystems to long-term climate change. We can address several key questions in climate change ecology; for example, how will diversity and composition respond to climate change (e.g., species losses/gains)? how will species distributions respond to climate change (e.g., range shifts, thermophilization)? how will changes in diversity and composition affect ecosystem functioning and services? In this presentation, we will mainly present some outputs from our recent collaborative efforts in the Hakkoda mountain range using historical vegetation resurveys. The presentation will also discuss issues that need to be considered in historical vegetation studies in climate change ecology.