Kitakyushu

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Kitakyushu-shi
北九州 市
Kitakyushu
Geographical location in Japan
Kitakyushu (Japan)
Red pog.svg
Region : Kyushu
Prefecture : Fukuoka
Coordinates : 33 ° 50 ′  N , 130 ° 50 ′  E Coordinates: 33 ° 50 ′ 0 ″  N , 130 ° 50 ′ 1 ″  E
Basic data
Surface: 491.69 km²
Residents : 940.141
(October 1, 2019)
Population density : 1912 inhabitants per km²
Community key : 40100-5
Symbols
Flag / coat of arms:
Flag / coat of arms of Kitakyushu
Tree : yew
Flower : Azalea , sunflower
town hall
Address : Kitakyushu City Hall
1 - 1 , Jonai
Kokura-Kita-ku , Kitakyushu -shi
Fukuoka  803-8501
Website URL: https://www.city.kitakyushu.lg.jp/
Location of Kitakyushus in Fukuoka Prefecture
Location of Kitakyūshū in the prefecture

Kitakyūshū ( Japanese 北九州 市 , - shi ; literally: "North Kyūshū ") is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Japanese island of Kyūshū south of the Kammon Strait . The city is an important part of the Kammon-Kitakyūshū area and is increasingly being integrated into the Fukuoka region. Kitakyushu has the largest area (almost a tenth) of the 29 cities in Fukuoka Prefecture.

Kitakyūshū has the image of a polluted industrial city, which it did in the 1960s - but today it is one of the most advanced in terms of pollution management and recycling technology.

history

The present sub-town of Kokura was on August 9, 1945 for the American Major Charles Sweeney the target for the Fat Man atomic bomb he carried on the plane . The target was supposed to be attacked in visual flight, but clouds of smoke from the Yawata steelworks in Yahata , which had been attacked with incendiary and high-explosive bombs the previous day and which were driven to Kokura by the west wind , prevented a clear view. Sweeney abandoned the attack after the 3rd attempt and bombed the alternative target Nagasaki at 11:02 Japanese Standard Time (JST).

The city was created on February 10, 1963 from the merger of the cities of Moji ( 門 司 市 , -shi ), Kokura ( 小 倉 市 , -shi ), Tobata ( 戸 畑 市 , -shi ), Yahata ( 八 幡 市 , -shi ) and Wakamatsu ( 若 松 市 , -shi ).

Culture

Since 1974 the Kitakyūshū Municipal Museum of Art has been a museum for Japanese and Western art with works from the 19th century to the present day. It is located in the Tobata district in Bijutsunomori Park in a building designed by the architect Arata Isozaki . The Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) opened its doors in May 1997 . In the years that followed, exhibitions were held here with works by well-known international artists, such as Maurizio Cattelan and Anri Sala .

writer

The writer Matsumoto Seichō was born in Kokura. The Matsumoto Seichō Memorial Museum is located downtown. The novelist Mori Ōgai lived here for several years. His house in Kokura is open to the public, where he wrote the Kokura Nikki ( Kokura diary ). The writer Hino Ashihei was born in the Wakamatsu district. The house where he was born can be visited.

natural beauties

  • Hiraodai (平 尾 台): karst plateau
  • Mount Sarakura (皿 倉)
  • Kawachi (河内): reservoir

Politics and administration

Group strengths in the city parliament
(as of May 1, 2019)
      
A total of 57 seats
  • LDP : 13
  • Kōmeitō : 13
  • Heartful Kitakyūshū (from ex- Minshintō and SDP ): 11
  • KPY : 9
  • Jimin no Kai ("LDP Assembly"): 9
  • Two other factions: 2

Kenji Kitahashi , a longtime DSP member of the House of Commons, has been the mayor of Kitakyushu since 2007 . He was re-elected for a fourth term in January 2019 with a historically low turnout of less than 34% against two challengers with almost 75% of the vote.

The Kitakyūshū City Parliament ( Kitkyūshū-shigikai ) has 57 members and was last elected in January 2017.

In the 86-member prefectural parliament of Fukuoka last elected in the unified elections in April 2019 , the city is represented by a total of 16 members, the districts function as one to four-mandate constituencies. Of the MPs from Kitakyūshū (as of May 2019) seven belong to the LDP faction, four from the Kōmeitō faction, four from the ex- DPJ successor faction and one from the CPJ .

In elections to the lower house of the national parliament, Kitakyūshū forms constituencies 9 and 10 of the prefecture, which after the 2017 election will be represented unchanged by the liberal democrats Asahiko Mihara (2017: 45.7% of the vote) and Kōzō Yamamoto (44.2%).

City structure

On April 1, 1963, Kitakyushyu was declared a "government-designated city" ( Seirei shitei toshi ) . At the same time there was a division into five city districts ( -ku , 区 ), which bore the names of the merged cities.
On April 1, 1974, the districts of Kokura and Yahata were divided into two additional districts: Kokura-Kita ( 小 倉 北 , Kokura-North) and Kokura-Minami ( 小 倉 南 , Kokura-South) and Yahata-Higashi ( 八 幡 東 , Yahata -East) and Yahata-Nishi ( 八 幡 西 , Yahata-West). The Kokura-Kita district is considered the center.
The western city of Nakama was supposed to be incorporated in 2005 as part of the Great Heisei Territorial Reform and become the eighth district, but this was rejected by the local city council on December 24, 2004 because of the resulting reduced political autonomy of Nakama after the citizens of Nakama-shi in the referendum approved the merger.

Map of the districts of the city of Kitakyushu

The current seven boroughs of Kitakyūshūs are:

code Surname Area (in km²) population Population
density (inh / km²)
Rōmaji Kanji 1st October 2019 1st October 2019 10/01/2015
40101 Moji-ku 門 司 区 73.67 94,844 99,637 1,352.48
40103 Wakamatsu-ku 若 松 区 71.31 80,550 82,844 1,161.74
40105 Tobata-ku 戸 畑 区 16.61 57,466 59,116 3,559.06
40106 Kokura-Kita-ku 小 倉 北区 39.23 182,403 181,878 4,636.20
40107 Kokura-minami-ku 小 倉 南 区 171.48 209.041 212,850 1,239.37
40108 Yahata-Higashi-ku 八 幡 東区 36.26 65,058 68,844 1,898.62
40109 Yahata-Nishi-ku 八 幡 西区 83.13 250,779 256.117 3,080.92
40100 Kitakyushu-shi 北九州 市 491.69 940.141 961.286 1,954.03

economy

Nippon Steel is still an important employer today , but the Yawata and Tobata plants have lost importance since the 1960s. In 1972 the last coal mines closed. The Yawata Plant was founded in 1901 and was Japan's first steel mill . It produced 80 percent of Japanese steel in the first few decades. Kitakyūshū is also the location of the main plant of the industrial robot and electric motor manufacturer Yaskawa (in Yahata).

traffic

Monorail
Kitakyushu City Hall

Due to its strategically important location on the south bank of Kammon Street , Kitakyūshū is an important traffic hub between Honshū and Kyūshū and has a large port.

Train lines in Kitakyushu are:

In the city, the public transport consists mainly of buses and the Kitakyushu monorail . Kitakyushu is the largest ferry port in western Japan. There are ferry connections between Kitakyushu and Shimonoseki , Matsuyama , Tokushima , Kobe , Osaka , Tokyo , Ulsan (Korea), Busan (Korea) and the islands of the city.

There are three commuter connections in the Kanmon-Kitakyushu area: Trans-Dokaiwan Ferry, The Kanmon Straits Ferry, and The Kanmon Straits Liner.

The Kitakyushu Airport opened on 16 March 2006 on an artificial island in the sea. From there there are mainly domestic connections to Tokyo, but also flights to Shanghai.

sons and daughters of the town

Town twinning

gallery

  • Kokura train station

  • Murasaki river

  • Yasaka shrine

  • Kokura Gion Daiko (City Festival)

  • Yahata ironworks

  • Mount Sarakura

  • Kokura Castle

  • Mojiko train station

Neighboring cities and communities

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City Parliament Kitakyūshū: Members by parliamentary group , accessed on May 17, 2019.
  2. ↑ 北九州 市長 選 現 職 の 北橋 氏 ４ 回 目 の 当選 . In: NHK Senkyo Web. January 27, 2019, accessed May 17, 2019 (Japanese).
  3. ^ Nishi-Nippon Shimbun : Results of the 2017 Kitakyūshū city parliament election (Japanese); accessed on July 11, 2018.
  4. ↑ Fukuoka Prefectural Parliament , MPs : MPs from the city of Kitakyūshū
  5. ↑ Prefecture Administration of Fukuoka: 福岡 県 市町村 合併 史 ～ 平 成 の 合併 の 記録 ～ , March 2014 ( overview page / table of contents , complete pdf , accessed on August 10, 2020), p. 53 f. [pdf-offset: +1]: 北九州 市 ・ 中間 市 合併 協議 会 Kitakyūshūshi / Nakamashi gappei kyōgikai (Joint conference [of the administrations involved; part of the legal procedure for community mergers / incorporations] on the merger of Kita-Kyūshū-shi and Nakama- shi).
  6. ↑ Kokudo Chiriin : 令 和 元年 全国 都 道 府 県 市区 町 村 別 面積 調 （１０ 月 １ 日 時点） , pp. 83: 40 福岡 県 (Japanese), accessed June 21, 2020.
  7. ↑ 福岡 県 人口 移動 調査 第 １ 表 市区 町 村 別人 口 - デ ー タ セ ッ ト - 自治 体 オ ー プ ン デ ー タ の CKAN . 福岡 県 , October 1, 2019, accessed October 30, 2019 (Japanese).
  8. ↑ Results of the 2015 census according to e-stat (English), accessed on December 16, 2018
  9. ↑ Christoph Neidhart: Japan: When the colorful smoke evaporated . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . March 25, 2016 ( sueddeutsche.de ).

Web links

Commons : Kitakyūshū  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files