Northern Kyushu

Northern Kyushu Data
Sum of 5 provinces
Area	25,256.75km²
General Population	10,381,372 （Sept 2008）
Pop Density	411.03 per km² （Sept 2008）

is a subregion of Kyūshū

Kyushu

or Kyushu is the 3rd-largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include Kyūkoku , Chinzei , and Tsukushi-no-shima...

. In the olden days it was called North Kyūshū (Kitakyūshū, 北九州) until 1963, when the city of Kitakyūshū was formed. Thereafter to avoid confusion the name has been changed. It is the most urbanized and industrialized part of the Kyūshū region.

This regions refers to the prefectures of Fukuoka

Fukuoka Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyūshū Island. The capital is the city of Fukuoka.- History :Fukuoka Prefecture includes the former provinces of Chikugo, Chikuzen, and Buzen....

, Saga

Saga Prefecture

is located in the northwest part of the island of Kyūshū, Japan. It touches both the Sea of Japan and the Ariake Sea. The western part of the prefecture is a region famous for producing ceramics and porcelain, particularly the towns of Karatsu, Imari, and Arita...

, Nagasaki

Nagasaki Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. The capital is the city of Nagasaki.- History :Nagasaki Prefecture, a unification of the western half of the former province of Hizen, with the former island provinces of Tsushima, and Iki, has had close ties with foreign civilization for...

, Kumamoto

Kumamoto Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyūshū Island. The capital is the city of Kumamoto.- History :Historically the area was called Higo Province and was renamed to Kumamoto Prefecture during the Meiji Restoration as part of the abolition of the feudal system...

, and Ōita

Oita Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyūshū Island. The prefectural capital is the city of Ōita.- History :After the Meiji Restoration, Bungo and southern Buzen Provinces were combined to form Ōita Prefecture: These provinces were divided among many local daimyo and thus a large castle town never...

.

Sometimes included is Yamaguchi Prefecture

Yamaguchi Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Yamaguchi located in the center of the Prefecture: The largest city, by contrast, is Shimonoseki.- History :...

 on Honshū

Honshu

or Honshu is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Strait...

, though its not part of Kyūshū, it is effectively a satellite of the Kanmon Straits

Kanmon Straits

The Kanmon Straits or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshū side of the water is Shimonoseki and on the Kyūshū side is Kitakyūshū, whose former city and present ward, Moji , gave the strait its "mon"...

 metropolitan area.

The region is part of the Taiheiyō Belt

Taiheiyo Belt

The also known as Tokaido corridor is the name for the megalopolis in Japan extending from Ibaraki Prefecture in the north all the way to Fukuoka Prefecture in the south, running for almost 1,200 km...

 and comprises the Northern Kyushu Industrial Zone (:ja:北九州工業地帯)