Kitakyushu

Industrial port city in Fukuoka prefecture, on the Hibiki Sea, north Kyushu island, Japan; population (2005) 993,500. Kitakyushu, which means ‘north Kyushu city’, was formed in 1963 by the amalgamation of Moji, Kokura, Tobata, Yawata, and Wakamatsu. Industries include food-processing and the manufacture of appliances, ceramics, and semiconductors. A tunnel, built in 1942, and a bridge link the port with Honshu.

Moji was opened to foreign trade in 1887.

Kitakyushu was at the centre of an important industrial region, formerly the fourth largest in Japan. Industrial and urban growth began with the establishment of Japan's first iron and steel works at Yawata in 1901. By World War II, the region contained a large concentration of metals, heavy engineering, and chemicals industries, many of which were based on coal obtained from the Chikuho coalfield, 25 km/15 mi to the southwest. One of the five constituent cities, Kokura, was to have been the second city to receive an atom bomb during World War II, but it was cloudy on the day and the target was changed to Nagasaki.