Kokura (小倉) was an ancient castle town guarding, via its suburb Moji, the Straits of Shimonoseki between Honshu and Kyushu in Japan. Now part of the modern city of Kitakyushu, it is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound Sanyo Shinkansen line.

Kokura was the primary target of the nuclear weapon "Fat Man" on August 9, 1945, but since the city had been obscured by clouds and Major Charles Sweeney of the Bockscar had orders to drop the bomb visually, they moved on to Nagasaki, the secondary target, where they dropped their lethal weapon. Consequently, the expression Kokura's luck became common in Japan for escaping a horrible situation without being aware of it.