Moji-ku, Kitakyushu

Moji-ku (門司区^?) is a Japanese ward of the city of Kitakyūshū in Fukuoka Prefecture. It is the former city of Moji which was one of five merged to create Kitakyūshū in 1963. It faces the city of Shimonoseki across the Kanmon Straits between Honshū and Kyūshū.

The ward's area is 73.37 km². It had a population of 114,754 as of 2000.

Moji was first made into a port by Suematsu Kenchō with the financial backing of Shibusawa Eiichi in 1889. It was chiefly used for the transportation of coal, though there is a traditional song about the sale of bananas imported into Moji from Southeast Asia which survives to this day (Banana no tataki-uri).

An Imperial decree in July 1899 established Moji as an open port for trading with the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 1905, Moji was the departure point for many troops in the Russo-Japanese War who were ferried to Korea.

Mojiko Retro, which officially opened under this name as a tourist site in 1995, is a historical area centered on JR Kyushu's Mojiko Station, which is a replica of Rome's Termini Station and is designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan.

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