The Port of Kobe is a Japanese maritime port in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whi ...

, Hyōgo in the

Keihanshin is a metropolitan region in the Kansai region of Japan encompassing the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka in Osaka Prefecture and Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture. The entire region has a population () of 19,302,746 ...

area, backgrounded by the

Hanshin Industrial Region The is one of the largest industrial regions in Japan. Its name comes from the ''on''-reading of the kanji used to abbreviate the names of Osaka (大阪) and Kobe (神戸), the two largest cities in the megalopolis. The GDP of this area (Osaka ...

. Located at a foothill of the range of Mount Rokkō, flat lands are limited and constructions of artificial islands have carried out, to make

Port Island is an artificial island in Chuo-ku, Kobe, Japan. It was constructed between 1966-1980 (Phase 1) and 1987-2009 (Phase 2) at Port of Kobe, and officially opened with an exposition called " Portopia '81." It now houses a heliport, numerous h ...

Rokkō Island is a man-made island in Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan. It is located in the southeast region of the Port of Kobe. The island has a rectangular shape, and covers . The residential area of the island, featuring apartment buildings—man ...

, island of

Kobe Airport is an airport on an artificial island just off the coast of Kobe, south of Sannomiya StationAIS Japan
In the 10th century,

Taira no Kiyomori was a military leader and ''kugyō'' of the late Heian period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan. Early life Kiyomori was born in Heian-kyō, Japan, in 1118 as the first so ...

renovated the then and moved to , the short-lived capital neighbouring the port. Throughout medieval era, the port was known as . In 1858 the Treaty of Amity and Commerce opened the Hyōgo Port to foreigners. After the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

pillars were occupied by the Allied Forces, later by

United States Forces Japan is a subordinate unified command of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). It was activated at Fuchū Air Station in Tokyo, Japan, on 1 July 1957 to replace the Far East Command. USFJ is commanded by the Commander, US Forces ...

. (Last one returned in 1973.) In the 1970s the port boasted it handled the most containers in the world. It was the

world's busiest container port This article lists the world's busiest container ports (ports with container terminals that specialize in handling goods transported in intermodal shipping containers), by total number of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) transported through t ...

from 1973 to 1978. The 1995

Great Hanshin earthquake The , or Kobe earthquake, occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region known as Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and ha ...

diminished much of the port city's prominence when it destroyed and halted much of the facilities and services there, causing approximately ten trillion yen or $102.5 billion in damage, 2.5% of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

's GDP at the time. Most of the losses were uninsured, as only 3% of property in the Kobe area was covered by earthquake insurance, compared to 16% in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

. Kobe was one of the world's busiest ports prior to the earthquake, but despite the repair and rebuilding, it has never regained its former status as Japan's principal shipping port. It remains Japan's fourth busiest container port.American Association of Port Authorities
- "World Port Rankings 2006", retrieved April 15, 2008

Facilities

*Container berths: 34 *Area: 3.89 km² *Max draft: 18 m

Amusement facility for public

Meriken Park Meriken Park is a waterfront park located in the port city of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The park features the Kobe Port Tower, Kobe Maritime Museum, and a memorial to victims of the Great Hanshin earthquake. The name of the park comes fro ...

Kobe Port Tower The is a landmark in the port city of Kobe, Japan. The sightseeing tower was completed in 1963 and was temporarily closed from late 2009 to 28 April 2010 for renovation. It is located in the Central District, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. H ...

* Harborland

Passenger services

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

: twice a week *

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

: once a week *

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

, China: once a week

Cruise port

Kobe is also a home port for certain cruise ships. Cruise lines that call at the port are kinds like

Holland America Line Holland America Line is an American-owned cruise line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. Holland America Line was founded in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and from 1873 to 1989, it operated ...

and

Princess Cruise Line Princess Cruises is an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company is incorporated in Bermuda and its headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California, Santa Clarita, California. As of 2021, it is the List of cruise lines# ...

. In the summer of 2014 Princess expanded the market in Kobe when their ship sailed eight-day roundtrip Asia cruises from the port. These cruises on the '' Sun Princess'' are a part of Princess Cruises $11 billion contributions to the entire country of Japan, where the ship will also sail from

Otaru, Hokkaido is a city and port in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces Ishikari Bay and the Sea of Japan, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical buildings, Otaru is a popular to ...

, as it is currently based in Yokohama, Tokyo.

Sister ports

* Rotterdam port,

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

- 1967 * Seattle port,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

- 1967 *

Tianjin port The Port of Tianjin (''Tianjin Gang'', ), formerly known as the Port of Tanggu, is the largest port in Northern China and the main maritime gateway to Beijing. The name "Tianjin Xingang" (), which strictly speaking refers only to the main seaport ...

- 1980 *

Kolkata port Port of Kolkata or Kolkata Port, officially known as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust (formerly Kolkata Port Trust), is the only riverine major port of India, located in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, around from the sea. It is the olde ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

-1951 * Vancouver port,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

-1991

References

External links

Kobe Ports and Harbors Office
{{Coord, 34, 40, 39, N, 135, 13, 37, E, region:JP_source:kolossus-jawiki, display=title Ports and harbors of Japan Buildings and structures in Kobe Keihanshin Transport in Hyōgo Prefecture