Kitakyūshū is a city located in Fukuoka prefecture, Kyūshū, Japan. It is midway between Tokyo and Shanghai. Within Japan it is a leading city in anti-pollution measures and recycling with the Ecotown facility in Wakamatsu ward.
Kitakyūshū has a population of just under one million. Together with Shimonoseki on Honshū the city is the major part of the Kanmon Straits area which has a total population of about 1.5 million (Bureau of Statistics definition).
Kokura Station in Kitakyūshū is 20 minutes by shinkansen from the largest city in Kyūshū, Fukuoka which has a population of about 1.4 million, or 2.6 million in the Greater Fukuoka urban area. Kokura Station is Kyūshū's second largest railway station after Hakata station, with about 120,000 users daily. |