When the Chinese smog arrives, the medical masks come in fashion.
Every few months, this city of 1.5 million people in southern Japan, not far from mainland China, gets a dose of lung clogging courtesy of its neighbor.
Coal factories in the cities of Tianjin and Beijing, combined with the growing numbers of automobiles, pump out toxins that drift westward across the East China Sea. They hit Japan and, to a lesser extent, South Korea.
The most recent air pollution crisis came in February, when a whitish gray blanket of smog fell over Fukuoka. The city government put out an advisory on its early warning system - the first in Japan, started that month - urging everybody, and especially infants and the elderly, to stay indoors and wear face masks outside.
"There is concern among citizens over the health effects," said Keiko Nabamuta, a city environment official. "Whenever this happens, we ask residents to stay indoors and avoid hanging their laundry outside," a measure to prevent unsafe particulates from gathering on clothing.
The air pollution problem has become so pervasive that it has joined the list of diplomatic issues on the table between three fractious nations: China, which produces much of it, and Japan and South Korea, on its receiving end.
On May 7, top environmental officials of the three countries met in Kitakyushu, a city near Fukuoka, and agreed to set up a panel that will occasionally gather to explore solutions.
"Air pollution and climate change are common issues in the region," Japan's Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told his counterparts in remarks carried by public broadcaster NHK. "Apart from domestic countermeasures, it is indispensable for China, South Korea and other countries to cooperate in solving them."
The promises of cooperation came at an odd time. This year, relations between the three countries have fallen to a nadir over a line-up of territorial disputes.
The nations have drummed up a war of words over two chains of islets: the Liancourt Rocks torn between South Korea and Japan, and the Senkaku Islands disputed between China and Japan.
Adding to the bad blood, the countries are also debating the history of Japanese atrocities during World War II.
South Korea and China expressed displeasure when, on Tuesday, the mayor of Osaka said that sex slaves, commonly referred to as "comfort women," were a "necessary evil" to maintain discipline in the Japanese army during World War II.
China's environmental protection minister, Zhou Shengxian, cancelled his attendance on claims he was preoccupied with the damage of the April earthquake in Sichuan, in south-central China, which killed some 200 people. Yet Japanese media speculated that his absence was related to rising tensions over the Senkaku Islands.
Early warning
Over the past year, the governments of Japan and South Korea have been stepping up their early warning capabilities for cities at risk from air pollution.
