The asteroid was discovered by Japanese astronomer Tsutomu Seki at Geisei Observatory on 30 November 1986, and named after the city of Kitami, Japan.
It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.7–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 10 months (2,127 days).
[8] In December 2009, a rotational lightcurve of Kitami was obtained from photometric observations by amateur astronomer René Roy at his at Blauvac Observatory, France.
[6] Based on the survey carried out by NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Kitami measures 19.7 and 20.5 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.066 and 0.072, respectively,[4][5] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.08 and calculates a diameter of 17.1 kilometers.
[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 August 1988 (M.P.C.