is a district of

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is one of the major downtown areas in the city. The name Shinkaichi means "newly opened area". It was named so because the district was newly developed after moving the Minato-gawa (river) from this area to the west end of the city in the early 20th century. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the air raid on Kobe by the Allied forces in 1945, this district was the largest section of downtown Kobe. From the 1920s to the 1940s, this district was also famous as a "town of

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

s". However, after such theaters lost their popularity during the 1960s, this district rapidly lost its status.

Transportation

Shinkaichi Station is a railway station operated by Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., Hankyu Corporation and Kobe Electric Railway Co., Ltd. in the district of Shinkaichi, Hyogo-ku, Kobe opened on April 7, 1968. Kobe Rapid Transit Railway Co., Ltd. owns the ...

Kobe Rapid Transit Railway Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of 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 the Kansai re ...

is in Shinkaichi. It is the terminal of the trains of

Kobe Electric Railway , often called , is a Japanese private railway company in Kobe and surrounding cities. It is a subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Lines * Arima Line ( Minatogawa - Arima Onsen) * Sanda Line ( Arimaguchi - Sanda) * Kōen-Toshi Line ( Yok ...

and is also served by

Hankyu , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region. It is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho G ...

Hanshin , derived from the second kanji from and the first kanji from (but in ''on''-reading instead of ''kun''-reading), refers generally to Osaka, Kobe, and the surrounding area in the Kansai region of Japan. In the context of a region of Hyōgo ...

and

Sanyo is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...

trains.

References

{{Shopping districts and streets in Japan Shopping districts and streets in Japan Tourist attractions in Kobe Geography of Kobe