Former Nagasaki Customs, Miike Branch

When Mitsui Group opened its own port at Miike in 1908 to ship coal directly to Asia, a customs branch was built on-site to handle exports. The white-and-blue wooden building, with its period-appropriate chandeliers, was later used as a warehouse and nearly lost before the city of Omuta dismantled and carefully reconstructed it in 2012 using original materials. It is now a Fukuoka Prefectural Tangible Cultural Property and part of the Miike Port UNESCO World Heritage Site. Open to the public on weekends and public holidays, it tells a compact, well-preserved story of Meiji-era industrial trade.