Discover Kobe

Kobe is a city in Japan, located on the island of Honshu. Kobe is the capital of Hyogo Prefecture and is one of Japan's major ports along with the ports of Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Hakata, and Tokyo. It is in the Kansai region of Japan, in Hyogo Prefecture to the southwest of Osaka. It was one of the first cities to open for trade with the West, as of 1868. The cosmopolitan port city has a population of 45,500 foreign residents from more than 100 countries.

The city is a part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan industrial corridor.

Fast Facts

• One of Japan's ten largest cities.
• Part of the large economic corridor which includes Osaka and Kyoto
• Population: 1,521,000+ (2004)
• City Area: 551.40 square kilometers.
• Severely damaged by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake which registered a magnitude 7.2 on the Richter scale.
• Before the 1995 earthquake, Kobe was the world's second busiest port and Asia's busiest port. The port of Kobe has since recovered from the earthquake and is now Japan's third major seaport.