15. Our City ---

15.1 History When the Port of Kobe was opened to the outside world in 1868, Kobe was a simple fishing village with no more than 20,000 inhabitants. In a period of only 135 years, it has flourished into an international port city with a population of more than 1.5 million. In addition to being a leading port in , Kobe is well known both as a scenic city which features the mountains and the sea and as an international metropolis with a diverse population. As far as the foreign population is concerned, it is closing in on 45,000 people from as many as 115 different countries and making Kobe a plethora of cultural diversity. The international flavor of Kobe’s population is easy to see and experience.

15.2 Location Kobe is located just to the west of center on the main island of Honshu in an area known as the Kansai Region. The port city of Kobe is easily accessible to most domestic and international destinations by land, sea or air. Only 2 hours and 50 minutes from on the Bullet Train, Kobe is also just an hour by bus from the Kansai International Airport.

15.3 Industry Kobe is home to a variety of industries, beginning with the production of parts, to the manufacturing of finished products, extending all the way to cutting-edge R & D and the ever-growing area of information business and technology sector. Kobe’s port has played a leading role in the city’s development by attracting port-related industries, including steel production, shipbuilding, foodstuffs, shipping and warehousing. Kobe has also long been renowned as a traditional center of sake - rice wine- brewing. Sake from Kobe is generally held to be the very best in Japan. The growth of fashion-related industries such as apparel, pearls, shoes, and furniture owes a great deal to the lifestyle and culture unique to Kobe.

15.4 Devastating & Revival On January 17, 1995, the South Hyogo Prefectural Earthquake (a.k.a.: the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake), the first major quake to directly hit a Japanese urban area, influenced unprecedented devastating damage in the Hanshin-Awaji region in Kobe and neighboring cities. The powerful jolt took 4,571 lives in Kobe City alone. Now in 2004, Kobe has been almost fully recovered restored and the city is looking forward to continuing to focus on its goals for urban revival, extending its urban renewal plans, and implementing more urban development projects in the future, in order to make Kobe the most attractive city that it can be.