Kobe is a city on Osaka Bay in central Japan 神戸は中部地方の大阪湾にある都市です

See Blue Sky and White Clouds in Japan. See the Japanese city of Kobe.

Kobe is a city on Osaka Bay in central Japan 神戸は中部地方の大阪湾にある都市です

Kobe (officially 神戸市, Kōbe-shi) is the 7th-largest city, the 3rd-largest port city in Japan after Yokohama and Fukuoka, and the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture. It is located on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, on the north shore of Osaka Bay and about 30 km (19 mi) west of Osaka. With a large population around 1.5 million, the city is part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kyoto.

The earliest written records regarding the region come from the Nihon Shoki, which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingū in AD 201. For most of its history, the area was never a single political entity, even during the Tokugawa period, when the port was controlled directly by the Tokugawa shogunate. Kobe did not exist in its so-called current form until its founding in 1889. Its name comes from Kanbe (神戸, an archaic title for supporters of the city's Ikuta Shrine). Kobe certainly became one of Japan's designated cities in 1956.

Kobe was one of the cities to open for trade with the West following the 1853 end of the policy of seclusion and has since been known as a cosmopolitan and nuclear-free zone port city. While the 1995 Great Hanshin damaging earthquake diminished much of Kobe's prominence as a port city, it remains Japan's 4th-busiest container port. Companies headquartered in Kobe include ASICS, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Kobe Steel, as well as over 100 international corporations with Asian or Japanese headquarters in the city, such as Eli Lilly and Company, Procter & Gamble, Boehringer Ingelheim, and so-called Nestlé. The large successful city is the point of origin and namesake of Kobe beef, as well as the site of one of Japan's most famous hot spring resorts, Arima Onsen.

Origin of Kobe is interesting. Certain tools found in western Kobe demonstrate the area was populated at least from the Jōmon period.

The natural beautiful geography of the area, particularly of Wada Cape in Hyōgo-ku, led to the development of a port, which would remain the economic center of the important city. Some of the earliest written documents mentioning the region include the Nihon Shoki, which certainly describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingū in AD 201.

神戸市 Kobe City (Kōbe-shi)

市 City

大阪湾 Osaka Bay

横浜 Yokohama

福岡 Fukuoka

日本 Japan

中部日本 central Japan

小島 Island

県 Prefecture

人口 Population

100万 Million

メトロポリタン Metropolitan

大阪 Osaka

京都 Kyoto

東京 Tokyo

領域 Region

生田神社 Ikuta Shrine

歴史 History

徳川 Tokugawa

幕府 Shogunate

非核 Nuclear-free

地震 Earthquake

会社 Company

アジア人 Asian

リゾート Resort

業界 Industry

鋼 Steel

国際的 International

元 Origin

道具 Tool

地理 Geography

発達 Development

ポート Port

経済 Economy