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55-517: Nishinomiya is located in southeast Hyōgo Prefecture between the cities of Kobe and Osaka . It is bordered by Osaka Bay to the south, the cities of Amagasaki , Itami and Takarazuka along the Mukogawa and Nigawa rivers to the east and by the Rokkō Mountains and Kobe to the north. The city can be divided into two areas: a mountainous area in the north and a coastal plain in the south. Situated in

110-569: A mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 41 members. Nishinomiya contributes seven members to the Hyōgo Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is divided between the Hyōgo 2nd district and Hyōgo 7th districts of the lower house of the Diet of Japan . In terms of industry, food and beverages (especially sake , which

165-912: A number of private commuter rail operators around Osaka, the "Big 4" being Hankyu Railway / Hanshin Railway (Hankyu bought Hanshin in April 2005), Keihan Railway , Kintetsu , and Nankai Railway . JR-West's market share in the region is roughly equal to that of the Big 4 put together, largely due to its comprehensive network and high-speed commuter trains (Special Rapid Service trains on the Kobe and Kyoto lines operate at up to 130 km/h). Those in italics are announcement names. A number of other lines account for more than half of JR-West's track mileage. These lines mainly handle business and leisure travel between smaller cities and rural areas in western Japan. They account for about 20% of

220-1181: A prominent baseball team, and Nishinomiya Kita High, the setting for much of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya . There are also two private elementary schools, seven private middle schools and seven private high schools. In addition, the city also operates one, and the prefecture operates two, special education schools for the physically challenged. [REDACTED] JR West - Kobe Line [REDACTED] JR West - Fukuchiyama Line [REDACTED] Hankyu - Hankyu Kobe Main Line [REDACTED] Hankyu - Hankyu Imazu Line [REDACTED] Hankyu - Hankyu Kōyō Line [REDACTED] Hanshin Electric Railway - Hanshin Main Line [REDACTED] Hanshin Electric Railway - Hanshin Mukogawa Line Kobe Kobe ( / ˈ k oʊ b eɪ / KOH -bay ; Japanese : 神戸 , romanized :  Kōbe , pronounced [koꜜːbe] ), officially Kobe City ( 神戸市 , Kōbe-shi ) ,

275-542: A reclaimed island south of Port Island , also offers mostly domestic and charter flights, while Kansai International Airport in Osaka mainly serves international flights in the area. The JR West Sanyō Shinkansen stops at Shin-Kobe Station . Sannomiya Station is the main commuter hub in Kobe, serving as the transfer point for major intercity rail services: the JR Kobe Line connects Kobe to Osaka and Himeji , while both

330-557: A rich architectural heritage dating back to the Meiji era . While the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake diminished some of Kobe's prominence as a port city, it remains Japan's fourth-busiest container port . Companies headquartered in Kobe include ASICS , Kawasaki Heavy Industries , and Kobe Steel , while over 100 international corporations have their Asian or Japanese headquarters in the city, including Eli Lilly and Company , Procter & Gamble , Boehringer Ingelheim , and Nestlé . The city

385-629: A short commuter line with Shinkansen trains in Fukuoka . The "Urban Network" is JR-West's name for its commuter rail lines in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area. These lines together comprise 610 km of track, have 245 stations and account for about 43% of JR-West's passenger revenues. Urban Network stations are equipped to handle ICOCA fare cards. Train control on these lines is highly automated, and during peak hours trains run as often as every two minutes. JR-West's Urban Network competes with

440-717: Is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and is also one of only three Japan Railways Group constituents of the Nikkei 225 index: the others are JR East and JR Central . It was also listed in the Nagoya and Fukuoka stock exchanges until late 2020. JR-West's highest-grossing line is the Sanyo Shinkansen high-speed rail line between Osaka and Fukuoka . The Sanyo Shinkansen alone accounts for about 40% of JR-West's passenger revenues. The company also operates Hakata Minami Line ,

495-640: Is a traditional industry) are a major portion of the local economy. The city is also located on a corner of the Hanshin industrial zone. Since most of the farmland is in the urban district, Nishinomiya agriculture is in a difficult situation; it worsens every year. Efforts are being made to improve farming to make it profitable by growing such marketable products as soft vegetables for the big markets of Osaka and Kobe. Other efforts include effective land use by growing crops in greenhouses using hydroponic techniques and development of techniques for safe products. Nishinomiya

550-586: Is also home to 17 Japanese language schools for international students, including the international training group Lexis Japan. International schools serve both long-term foreign residents and expatriates living in Kobe and the Kansai region. The schools offer instruction in English, German , Chinese , and Korean . There are three English-language international schools: Canadian Academy , Marist Brothers International School , and St. Michael's International School. Kobe

605-617: Is located about 35 km (22 mi) west of Osaka and 70 km (43 mi) southwest of 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

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660-583: Is most famous for its Kobe beef (which is raised in the surrounding Hyōgo Prefecture) and Arima Onsen (hot springs). Notable buildings include the Ikuta Shrine as well as the Kobe Port Tower . Nearby mountains such as Mount Rokkō and Mount Maya overlook the city. The city is widely associated with cosmopolitanism and fashion, encapsulated in the Japanese saying, "If you can't go to Paris, go to Kobe." The biannual fashion event Kobe Fashion Week, featuring

715-602: Is significantly higher in summer than in winter, though on the whole lower than most parts of Honshū, and there is no significant snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kobe is 17.0 °C (62.6 °F). The average annual rainfall is 1,277.8 mm (50.31 in) with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 28.6 °C (83.5 °F), and lowest in January, at around 6.2 °C (43.2 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Kobe

770-730: Is situated between the major cities of Kobe and Osaka. Luxury neighborhoods are common in this city, especially in areas near Ashiya. Some of the shopping malls in Nishinomiya are the Lalaport Koshien and the Hankyu Nishinomiya Gardens. Nishinomiya has 40 public elementary schools and 19 public middle schools operated by the city government, and nine public high schools operated by the Hyōgo Prefectural Board of Education. These nine include Hōtoku Gakuen High School , with

825-531: 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 the Kansai region , which makes up the southern side of the main island of Honshū , on the north shore of Osaka Bay . It is part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kyoto . The Kobe city centre

880-513: Is the point of origin and namesake of Kobe beef , the home of Kobe University , and the site of one of Japan's most famous hot spring resorts, Arima Onsen . Tools found in western Kobe demonstrate the area was populated at least from the Jōmon period . The natural 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

935-555: Is the site of Japan's first golf course, Kobe Golf Club , established by Arthur Hesketh Groom in 1903, and Japan's first mosque , Kobe Mosque , built in 1935. The city hosts the Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club , founded in 1870 by Alexander Cameron Sim , and a prominent foreign cemetery . A number of Western-style residences – ijinkan ( 異人館 ) – from the 19th century still stand in Kitano and elsewhere in Kobe. Museums include

990-673: Is the site of a number of research institutes, such as the RIKEN Kobe Institute Center for developmental biology and medical imaging techniques, and Center for Computational Science (R-CCS, home of the Fugaku supercomputer ), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) Advanced ICT Research Institute, the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, and

1045-433: Is to never disclose whether any given warship is carrying nuclear weapons. This nonproliferation policy has been termed the " Kobe formula ". On January 17, 1995, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake occurred at 5:46 am JST near the city. About 6,434 people in the city were killed, 212,443 were made homeless, and large parts of the port facilities and other parts of the city were destroyed. The earthquake destroyed portions of

1100-760: The Chūgoku Expressway (Osaka – Yamaguchi). The Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway runs from Kobe to Naruto via Awaji Island and includes the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge , the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Port of Kobe is one of Japan's busiest container ports. Sub Area Activity Hanshin of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces provides monitoring across Osaka Bay and Harima Sea . The city of Kobe directly administers 169 elementary and 81 middle schools, with enrollments of approximately 80,200 and 36,000 students, respectively. If

1155-568: The Edo period , the eastern parts of present-day Kobe came under the jurisdiction of the Amagasaki Domain and the western parts under that of the Akashi Domain , while the center was controlled directly by the Tokugawa shogunate . It was not until the abolition of the han system in 1871 and the establishment of the current prefecture system that the area became politically distinct. Hyōgo Port

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1210-728: The Hankyū Kobe Line and the Hanshin Main Line run from Kobe to Umeda Station in Osaka. Sanyō Electric Railway trains from Himeji reach Sannomiya via the Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway . Kōbe Electric Railway runs north to Sanda and Arima Onsen . Kobe Municipal Subway provides connections to Shin-Osaka and Sannomiya stations from Kobe's western and eastern suburbs. Additionally, Kobe New Transit runs two lines serving Kobe Airport and Rokko Island . Over Mount Rokkō ,

1265-654: The Hanshin Expressway , an elevated freeway that dramatically toppled over. In Japan, this earthquake is known as the Great Hanshin earthquake (or the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake). To commemorate Kobe's recovery from it, the city holds an event every December called the Luminarie , where the city center is decorated with illuminated metal archways. The Port of Kobe was Japan's busiest port and one of Asia's top ports until

1320-637: The Hanshin Industrial Region . Kobe is the busiest container port in the region, surpassing even Osaka , and the fourth-busiest in Japan. As of 2004 , the city's total real GDP was ¥6.3 trillion, which amounts to thirty-four percent of the GDP for Hyōgo Prefecture and approximately eight percent for the whole Kansai region . Per capita income for the year was approximately ¥2.7 million. Broken down by sector , about one percent of those employed work in

1375-466: The Kobe City Museum and Museum of Literature . The city headquarters the professional wrestling promotion Dragongate , established in 2004 as an offshoot of Último Dragón 's original Toryumon system. The dialect spoken in Kobe is called Kobe-ben , a sub-dialect of Kansai dialect . Kobe hosted the 1985 Summer Universiade as well as the 1991 Men's Asian Basketball Championship , which

1430-504: The Kobe Collection , is held in Kobe. The jazz festival "Kobe Jazz Street" has been held every October at jazz clubs and hotels since 1981. It also hosts both a Festival, as well as a statue of Elvis Presley , the unveiling of which was heralded by the presence of former Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi . Kobe is well known in Japan as being a city for the affluent, as many high-end stores and mansions line its streets. Kobe

1485-474: The Tokugawa shogunate . Kobe did not exist in its 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 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 retained its cosmopolitan character ever since with

1540-613: The capital of Japan in 1180, when Taira no Kiyomori moved his grandson Emperor Antoku to Fukuhara-kyō in present-day Hyōgo-ku. The Emperor returned to Kyoto after about five months. Shortly thereafter in 1184, the Taira fortress in Hyōgo-ku and the nearby Ikuta Shrine became the sites of the Genpei War battle of Ichi-no-Tani between the Taira and Minamoto clans . The Minamoto prevailed, pushing

1595-688: The confectionery manufacturers Konigs-Krone and Morozoff Ltd. , Sun Television Japan and UCC Ueshima Coffee Co. There are over 100 international corporations that have their East Asian or Japanese headquarters in Kobe. Of these, twenty-four are from China, eighteen from the United States, and nine from Switzerland. Some prominent corporations include Eli Lilly and Company , Nestlé , Procter & Gamble , Tempur-Pedic , Boehringer-Ingelheim , and Toys "R" Us . In 2018, April, Swift Engineering USA, an American aerospace engineering firm established their joint venture in Kobe called Swift Xi Inc. Kobe

1650-603: The primary sector (agriculture, fishing and mining), twenty-one percent work in the secondary sector (manufacturing and industry), and seventy-eight percent work in the service sector . The value of manufactured goods produced and exported from Kobe for 2004 was ¥2.5 trillion. The four largest sectors in terms of value of goods produced are small appliances, food products, transportation equipment, and communication equipment making up over fifty percent of Kobe's manufactured goods. In terms of numbers of employees, food products, small appliances, and transportation equipment make up

1705-731: The Asian Disaster Reduction Center. International organizations include the WHO Centre for Health Development , an intergovernmental agency forming part of the World Health Organization . The Consulate-General of Panama in Kobe is located on the eighth floor of the Moriyama Building in Chūō-ku, Kobe . Itami Airport , in nearby Itami , serves primarily domestic flights throughout Japan, Kobe Airport , built on

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1760-511: The Fireflies and the book by Akiyuki Nosaka on which the film was based. It also features in the motion picture A Boy Called H . Following continuous pressure from citizens, on March 18, 1975, the Kobe City Council passed an ordinance banning vessels carrying nuclear weapons from Kobe Port. This effectively prevented any U.S. warships from entering the port, because U.S. policy

1815-458: The Great Hanshin earthquake. Kobe has since dropped to fourth in Japan and, as of 2012, was the 49th- busiest container port worldwide . Wedged between the coast and the mountains, the city of Kobe is long and narrow. To the east is the city of Ashiya , while the city of Akashi lies to its west. Other adjacent cities include Takarazuka and Nishinomiya to the east and Sanda and Miki to

1870-487: The Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education. In addition, twenty-five high schools are run privately within the city. The total enrollment for high schools in 2006 was 43,400. Kobe is home to eighteen public and private universities, including Kobe University , Kobe Institute of Computing and Konan University , and eight junior colleges . Students enrolled for 2006 reached 67,000 and 4,100, respectively. Kobe

1925-500: The Taira further. As the port grew during the Kamakura period , it became an important hub for trade with China and other countries. In the 13th century, the city came to be known by the name Hyōgo Port ( 兵庫津 , Hyōgo-tsu ) . During this time, Hyōgo Port, along with northern Osaka, composed the province of Settsu (most of today's Kobe belonged to Settsu except Nishi Ward and Tarumi Ward , which belonged to Harima ). Later, during

1980-502: The West and many foreign residences from the period remain in Kobe's Kitano area . Kobe, as it is known today, was founded on April 1, 1889, and was designated on September 1, 1956 by government ordinance. The history of the city is closely tied to that of the Ikuta Shrine, and the name "Kobe" derives from kamube ( 神戸 , later kanbe ) , an archaic name for those who supported

2035-587: The city from east to west. The main transport hub is Sannomiya Station , with the eponymous Kobe Station located to the west and the Shinkansen Shin-Kobe Station to the north. Mount Rokkō overlooks Kobe at an elevation of 931 m (3,054 ft). During autumn, it is famous for the rich change in colors of its forests . Kobe has nine wards ( ku ): per km2 Kobe has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ) with hot summers and cool to cold winters. Precipitation

2090-529: The city has two funicular lines and three aerial lifts as well, namely Maya Cablecar , Rokkō Cable Line , Rokkō Arima Ropeway , Maya Ropeway , and Shin-Kobe Ropeway . Kobe is a transportation hub for a number of expressways , including the Meishin Expressway ( Nagoya – Kobe) and the Hanshin Expressway (Osaka – Kobe). Other expressways include the Sanyō Expressway (Kobe – Yamaguchi ) and

2145-411: The city's four private elementary schools and fourteen private middle schools are included, these figures jump to a total 82,000 elementary school students and 42,300 junior high students enrolled for the 2006 school year. Kobe also directly controls six of the city's twenty-five full-time public high schools including Fukiai High School and Rokkō Island High School. The remainder are administered by

2200-452: The city. Some of the earliest written documents mentioning the region include the Nihon Shoki , which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingū in AD 201. During the Nara and Heian periods , the port was known by the name Ōwada Anchorage ( Ōwada-no-tomari ) and was one of the ports from which imperial embassies to China were dispatched. The city was briefly

2255-500: The company's passenger revenues. JR-West subsidiaries include the following. JR-West was incorporated as a business corporation ( kabushiki kaisha ) on April 1, 1987, as part of the breakup of the state-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). Initially, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of the JNR Settlement Corporation (JNRSC), a special company created to hold the assets of the former JNR while they were shuffled among

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2310-509: The middle is Mount Kabuto (309 meters), a landmark of the city. Hyōgo Prefecture Nishinomiya has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa ) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Nishinomiya is 14.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1578 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.3 °C. Per Japanese census data,

2365-591: The new JR companies. For the first four years of its existence, JR-West leased its highest-revenue line, the Sanyō Shinkansen , from the separate Shinkansen Holding Corporation. JR-West purchased the line in October 1991 at a cost of 974.1 billion JPY (about US$ 7.2 billion) in long-term debt. JNRSC sold 68.3% of JR-West in an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 1996. After JNRSC

2420-516: The north. The landmark of the port area is the red steel Port Tower . A ferris wheel sits in nearby Harborland , a notable tourist promenade . Two artificial islands, Port Island and Rokkō Island , have been constructed to give the city room to expand. Away from the seaside at the heart of Kobe lie the Motomachi and Sannomiya districts, as well as Kobe's Chinatown , Nankin-machi , all well-known retail areas. A multitude of train lines cross

2475-625: The opening of the Kōshien Stadium opened on April 1, 1924. Nishinomiya was elevated to city status on April 1, 1925. The city expanded with the annexation of the town of Imazu and villages of Shiba and Taishi in April 1933, the village of Koto in February 1941, the village of Kawaragi in May 1942, and the villages of Naruo, Yamaguchi and Shiose in April 1951. The January 17, 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake caused widespread damage in Nishinomiya. Nishinomiya has

2530-403: The population are between the ages of 0 and 14, sixty-seven percent are between 15 and 64, and twenty percent are over the age of 65. Approximately 44,000 registered foreign nationals live in Kobe. The four most common nationalities are Korean (22,237), Chinese (12,516), Vietnamese (1,301), and American (1,280). The Port of Kobe is both an important port and manufacturing center within

2585-543: The population of Nishinomiya grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and has been increasing at a slower rate since. The area of Nishinomiya was part of ancient Settsu Province and has been inhabited since ancient times, with the traces of Yayoi period settlements, many kofun burial mounds found within the city limits. From the Asuka period , the Hirota Shrine was built, and the market town which developed around its west gate

2640-484: The shrine. During World War II , Kobe was lightly bombed in the Doolittle Raid on April 18, 1942, along with Tokyo and a few other cities. Eventually, it was bombed again with incendiary bombs by B-29 Superfortress bombers on March 16 and 17, 1945 , causing the death of 8,841 residents and the destruction of 21% of Kobe's urban area . This incident inspired the well-known Studio Ghibli film Grave of

2695-651: The three largest sectors. The GDP in Kobe Metropolitan Employment Area (2.4 million people) is US$ 96.0 billion in 2010. Japanese companies which have their headquarters in Kobe include ASICS , a shoe manufacturer; Daiei , a department store chain; Kawasaki Heavy Industries , Kawasaki Shipbuilding Co. , Kinki Sharyo , Mitsubishi Motors , Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (ship manufacturer), Mitsubishi Electric , Kobe Steel , Sumitomo Rubber Industries , Sysmex Corporation (medical devices manufacturer) and TOA Corporation . Other companies include

2750-492: Was 38.8 °C (101.8 °F) on August 5, 1994; the coldest temperature ever recorded was −7.2 °C (19.0 °F) on February 27, 1981. As of September 2007, Kobe had an estimated population of 1,530,295 making up 658,876 households . This was an increase of 1,347 persons or approximately 0.1% over the previous year. The population density was approximately 2,768 persons per square kilometre, while there are about 90.2 males to every 100 females. About thirteen percent of

2805-444: Was dissolved in October 1998, its shares of JR-West were transferred to the government-owned Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation (JRCC), which merged into the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT) as part of a bureaucratic reform package in October 2003. JRTT offered all of its shares in JR-West to the public in an international IPO in 2004, ending the era of government ownership of JR-West. JR-West

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2860-405: Was held in the Exhibition Hall in Port Island with over 50 countries competing. Sister cities JR West The West Japan Railway Company , also referred to as JR West ( JR西日本 , Jeiāru Nishi-Nihon ) , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu . It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka . It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange ,

2915-507: Was opened to foreign trade by the Shogunal government at the same time as Osaka on January 1, 1868, just before the advent of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration . At the time of the opening of the city for foreign trade, the area saw intense fighting resulting from the civil war in progress. Shortly after the opening of Kobe to trade, the Kobe Incident occurred, where several western soldiers sustained wounds from gunfire by troops from Bizen. The region has since been identified with

2970-478: Was the ancestor of "Nishinomiya". From the Muromachi period , Nishinomiya was famed for its production of sake . During the Edo Period , the area was tenryō territory under the direct administration of the Tokugawa shogunate . The town of Nishinomiya was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. Nishinomiya was a center of the culture from the 1910s to 1940s in which has been dubbed " Hanshinkan Modernism ". This included

3025-458: Was the qualifier for the 1992 Summer Olympics Basketball Tournament . Kobe was one of the host cities of the 2002 FIFA World Cup , hosting matches at Noevir Stadium Kobe (then known as Wing Stadium Kobe), which was renovated to increase its capacity to 40,000 for the event. Kobe was one of the host cities for the official 2006 Women's Volleyball World Championship . Kobe also hosted the World Darts Federation World Cup in October 2017. The event

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