Kitakyūshū 北九州, (http://www.city.kitakyushu.jp/%7Eenglish/) is a large city in Fukuoka prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Together with Shimonoseki it is part of the Kanmon Straits area. In terms of area it is the largest city in Kyushu, though Fukuoka has the bigger population. The population of Kitakyushu is about one million or 1.3 million including Shimonoseki. Kitakyushu was created in 1963 from the five smaller cities of Kokura 小倉, Moji 門司, Tobata 戸畑, Wakamatsu 若松 and Yahata 八幡, and it retains this sense of being a country area with much diversity and beautiful nature, despite its reputation as a steel town.
