Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory

About the Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory

The Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory (旧サッポロビール九州工場, Kyū Sapporo Bīru Kyūshū Kōjō) is a brewery site in Dairihonmachi, Moji Ward, Kitakyushu City, completed in 1913, whose four brick buildings were entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on July 31, 2007. Today the complex is known as Moji Red Brick Place (門司赤煉瓦プレイス, Moji Aka-renga Place).

The brewery began as Teikoku Beer (帝国麦酒), a company founded in 1912. A group of Moji businessmen led by Yamada Yahachirō bought land in what was then Dairi Town with backing from Suzuki & Co., the Kobe trading house, and set up the first beer company in Kyushu. The plant was finished in April 1913, brewing started at once, and a lager called Sakura Beer went on sale that July.

Over the following decades the business passed through several names, Sakura Beer, Dai-Nippon Beer, Nippon Beer and finally Sapporo Breweries, but the Moji plant kept brewing throughout. It closed in 2000, when Sapporo opened a new Kyushu brewery in Hita, Ōita Prefecture, ending 87 years of beer production on this site.

How the Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory Was Saved

Once the closure of the Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory was announced, local residents organised to keep its red brick buildings, working alongside a land readjustment project run by Kitakyushu City. Sapporo Breweries, the city and the residents agreed to keep four of the brick structures.

The city took over the office building and opened it as the Moji Beer Brick Museum (門司麦酒煉瓦館). The non-profit Moji Red Brick Club (門司赤煉瓦倶楽部), founded to look after the site, says it received the warehouse, the brewery building and the union building free of charge. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database, however, lists Kitakyushu City as the owner of the brewery building, so the two sources disagree on that point.

In April 2017 the Kanmon Straits story shared by Kitakyushu and Shimonoseki, "Kanmon Nostalgic Straits", was recognised as Japan Heritage, and the four factory buildings are among its component properties.

The Four Buildings of the Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory

All four buildings of the Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory were registered on the same day under consecutive numbers, 40-0046 to 40-0049. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives these dates and structures:

• Office building: 1913. Brick, 2 storeys with a tower, sheet-metal roof, building area 232 m²
• Brewery building: 1913. Brick blocks of 2, 3, 4 and 7 storeys, sheet-metal roof, building area 1180 m²
• Union building: 1917. Brick, single storey, sheet-metal roof, building area 108 m²
• Warehouse: 1913. Brick, 2 storeys, sheet-metal roof, building area 1050 m²

Three of the four date from the opening year of 1913. The small union building followed four years later. The office, brewery and union buildings were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape, while the warehouse was registered as a structure that would be difficult to reproduce.

Layout and Brickwork at the Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory

The Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory stands on the east side of National Route 199, the road that follows the Kanmon Straits. The office building faces west onto that road, and the much larger brewery building extends to its south. The small union building sits close against the north side of the brewery, and the warehouse is the only one of the four on the far, west side of the road.

Walk between them and the difference in brick colour stands out. The office building is faced with dull grey-brown slag bricks, which Kitakyushu City describes as bricks made without a firing stage. The brewery and the warehouse wear a red brick facing outside, with slag brick laid behind it on the inner face of the walls. A red shell over a lining of a different brick is one of the features that sets this factory apart.

The structure and details of each building are covered on its own page.

Visiting the Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory

The four buildings of the Former Sapporo Beer Kyushu Factory stand together within Moji Red Brick Place, and their exteriors can be seen from the grounds and the surrounding streets. Interior access differs building by building. The office building is run by a private operator under a lease from the city, the warehouse is a hall for hire, and the brewery building opens its interior only on public days held about twice a year. We found no notice of the union building's interior being opened (checked October 2026).

The nearest station is Moji on the JR Kagoshima Main Line, about 3 minutes on foot from the north exit. This is not Mojikō Station in the Mojikō Retro district, so take care not to mix them up. By car the site is about 5 minutes from the Dairi entrance of the Kitakyushu Urban Expressway. There is a car park on site, but in 2025 the parking area was leased to a private company and a new shop was built on it, so check fees and space locally.

The Moji Red Brick Club asks that commercial photo shoots in the warehouse be booked and paid for in advance. We found no official guidance on personal photography of the exteriors (checked October 2026).