Kitakyushu City

To create a vibrantatmosphere in the city
Background and Reason for the ProjectIn the central area of Kokura-kita Ward, in thecentre of Kitakyushu City, Uomachi shopping
street on the main street which runs north tosouth, has flourished since long ago as aregional shopping street, playing theimportant role of the commercial centre inthis area.
However, due to the declining population of
the city, the advanced aging of society and theinfluence of the expansion of large shopping
centres from suburban areas, visitor trafficand sales have declined and the shopping
street faces problems such as the withdrawalof large commercial facilities and an increased
number of vacant shops on the street. Under
these circumstances, it has become importantto prevent shoppers from leaving for thesuburbs and increase the number of visitors.

(1) Facility development and attracting large
events to create a vibrant atmosphereTo create a vibrant atmosphere in thecentral area of the city, Kitakyushu City
developed the following facilities incollaboration with the private sector over a
period of about six years, starting in 2008.
・Established a park and developed theroads around it to allow for holding
events in front of the Shinkansen
station, a highly convenient location
where people can gather easily
・ Established a commercial facility
specializing in manga and animation inan empty building after a largecommercial facility’s withdrawal
・Established an arcade roof over the roadbetween shopping streets so that
visitors can shop without getting wet
when it rains
・ Established a square to allow theholding of large events near thedepartment store in the centre of thecity
Making use of the developed urban
infrastructure and facilities where visitors
can gather and aiming to attract people tothe city to create a vibrant atmosphere, thecity has held large events such as fashionshows for young girls and pop-culture
festivals including a manga and animation
festival, which visitors come to from across

Project Aim and Outline, Features andInnovation1

Japan. They have also actively attracted
various private events. As a result, the city
annually had over four million visitors in
the fiscal year 2018, exceeding the annual
target of three million set to be achieved by
the fiscal year 2020.
(2) Use of unused real estate throughrenovation
Not on the initiative of the government but
as a collaboration between Uomachi
shopping street and real estate owners, thecity has held 13 renovation classes since FY
2011 to find and develop human resources
with renovation knowledge, and engaged
with them in the City Renovation Project toreuse vacant shops. As a result, renovation
techniques provided by private businesses
increased the number of projects making
use of unused real estate including vacantbuildings by 50, creating jobs for more than
600 people and improving the value of thearea.
This project has gathered attention
nationwide and improved the awarenessof the city’s City Renovation Project. A lotof municipal governments from acrossJapan have visited Kitakyushu City every
year, which is improving the image of thecity.
Since Uomachi shopping street is the first
shopping street that installed an arcade
roof on a public street in Japan and is open
to new things, the renovation was
successful under the initiative of not thepublic sector but the private sector.

(3) Holding of a night market on a publicstreet
An open-café business was started alongwith the holding of a night market on apublic street, which became possible byobtaining approval as a special zone fromthe national government and being
allowed to sell food, beverages and otherthings on a public street, which was until
then not allowed.
It helped recover visitor traffic in theshopping street at night and resulted in the
opening of restaurants where young
people, a new customer segment, gather invacant shops.
(4) Engagement as an SDG model shoppingstreet
Because the city was approved as the firstSDG model city in Asia by the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Co-operationand Development) in April 2018, Uomachi
shopping street decided to aim to become
the first SDG model shopping street inJapan as a shopping street with innovative
characteristics.
To be more specific, the city has introduced
LED lights for the lightning in the arcade,installed solar panels on the joint arcade
roof and engaged in the Cool Choice2

initiativefrom
anenvironmental
perspective. It also holds Machi-zemi (Uozemi), where shop owners on the shopping
street provide various knowledge tocustomers as lecturers from an educational
perspective and promote the City
Renovation Project and cashless payment
from an industrial perspective.

supported their great games. The stadium also
holds events other than sports, such as
outdoor music festivals and firework displays.
Such projects lead to an increase in the nonresident population in the area. The city
wishes this to lead to rejuvenating the entire
city by enhancing the attraction of the city incooperation with the private sector, andincreasing the number of visitors from insideand outside the city, outside the prefectureand overseas.
Reference URLs
Contact
Division in charge: Commerce and Service
Industry Policy Division, Industry andEconomics Bureau Regional Industry andTourism Promotion Department, City ofKitakyushu
Phone: +81-93-582-2050
E-mail: san-shougyouservice@city.kitakyushu.lg.jp

Future Developments (expected effects andproject vision and issues)
The city’s future vision includes the use of
Mikuni World Stadium. It opened in March2018 and has become the home stadium of
Kitakyushu City’s professional football teamwith a capacity of 15 thousand spectators. Infiscal year 2019, it was the pre-training-campsite of the Welsh rugby team, a participant
country of the Rugby World Cup, and 15
thousand citizens came and cheered for theteam at the open training session andTerminologies and Coined Terms Used
Cool Choice: A national campaign to promote“smart choices” that contribute to energysaving and low-carbon products, services andactions that Japan is proud of to the world.
It refers to, for example, actively choosing topurchase eco-friendly cars and build ecofriendly housing.

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