Timeline of Kobe

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Kobe, Japan.

Part of a series on the
History of Japan
Periods Paleolithic before 14,000 BC Jōmon 14,000–1000 BC Yayoi 1000 BC – 300 AD Kofun 300–538 AD Asuka 538–710 Nara 710–794 Heian Former Nine Years' War Later Three-Year War Genpei War 794–1185 Kamakura Jōkyū War Mongol invasions Genkō War Kenmu Restoration 1185–1333 Muromachi Nanboku-chō period Sengoku period 1336–1573 Azuchi–Momoyama Nanban trade Imjin War Battle of Sekigahara 1573–1603 Edo (Tokugawa) Tokugawa shogunate Invasion of Ryukyu Siege of Osaka Sakoku Perry Expedition Convention of Kanagawa Bakumatsu Meiji Restoration Boshin War 1603–1868 Meiji Ryūkyū Disposition Invasion of Taiwan (1874) Satsuma Rebellion First Sino-Japanese War Treaty of Shimonoseki Triple Intervention Invasion of Taiwan (1895) Colonization of Taiwan Boxer Rebellion Russo-Japanese War Treaty of Portsmouth Japan–Korea Treaty Colonization of Korea 1868–1912 Taishō World War I Intervention in Siberia Great Kantō earthquake 1912–1926 Shōwa Militarism Financial crisis Nanking incident Mukden Incident Invasion of Manchuria May 15 incident February 26 incident Anti-Comintern Pact Tripartite Pact Second Sino-Japanese War World War II Attack on Pearl Harbor Pacific War Atomic bombings Soviet–Japanese War Surrender of Japan Occupation of Japan Postwar Japan Anpo protests Economic miracle Asset price bubble 1926–1989 Heisei Lost Decades Great Hanshin earthquake Cool Japan Tōhoku earthquake Imperial transition 1989–2019 Reiwa COVID-19 pandemic Abe assassination Noto earthquake 2019–present
Topics Capital punishment Currency Earthquakes Economy Era names Education Empire Foreign relations Geography Historiography Religion Buddhism Christianity Islam Judaism Shinto Military Naval Politics Post-war Science and technology Sports World Heritage Sites
Glossary History Timeline
v t e

• 3rd century CE – Ikuta Shrine founded.
• 1868
  • Port of Kobe opens.
  • Hiogo and Osaka Herald English-language newspaper begins publication.^[1]
• 1870 – Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club established.
• 1872 – Minatogawa Shrine established.^[2]
• 1878 – Kobe Chamber of Commerce and Industry founded.^[3]
• 1884 – Kobe Yushin Nippo [ja] (newspaper) begins publication.
• 1887 – Population: 103,969.^[4]
• 1889 – Tōkaidō Main Line railway (Tokyo-Kobe) begins operating.^[5]
• 1893 – Population: 153,382.^[6]
• 1896 – Kinetoscope demonstrated at the Shinko Club.^[7][8]
• 1898
  • Kobe Shimbun (newspaper) begins publication.^[3]
  • Population: 215,780.^[6]

• 1902
  • Kobe Higher Commercial School [ja] founded.^[9]
  • Kawasaki Dockyard built.^[10]
• 1903
  • Kobe Golf Club formed.^[11]
  • Population: 283,839.^[12]
• 1905 – Kobe Seikosho in business.^[13][3]
• 1907 – City emblem designed.
• 1908 – Population: 378,197.^[6]
• 1913 – Population: 442,167.^[6]
• 1918 – Population: 592,726.^[6]
• 1920 – Population: 664,471.^[6]
• 1921 – Kobe Light Wave Society formed.^[14]
• 1925 – Population: 644,212.^[15]
• 1926 – Kobe Electric Railway established.
• 1930 – Ashiya Camera Club formed.^[14]
• 1931 – Nishi city ward established.^{[citation needed]}
• 1933
  • Hyōgo city ward established.^{[citation needed]}
  • Port Festival begins.^[16]
• 1935 – Population: 912,179
• 1936
  • Railway Sannomiya Station in operation.
  • Kobe Bank established.^[17]
• 1938 – Flooding.^[18]
• 1939 – Kawasaki Heavy Industries in business.^[19]
• 1940 – Population: 967,234.^[6]
• 1942 – April 18: Aerial bombing by US forces.
• 1945
  • March 16–17: Bombing of Kobe in World War II.
  • Population: 379,166.^[20]
• 1946 – Tarumi city ward^{[citation needed]} and Kobe Municipal College of Foreign Affairs^[21] established.
• 1949 – Kobe University established.^[9]
• 1950
  • November: Korean-related 1950 Nagata incident [ja] occurs.
  • Population: 765,435.^[6]
• 1951 – Kobe Oji Zoo founded.^[22]
• 1955 – Population: 979,920.^[6]
• 1956 – Kobe designated a government ordinance city.^[23]
• 1957 – Sister city relationship established with Seattle, USA.^[24]
• 1963 – Kobe Port Tower built.
• 1967 – Kobe Carnival begins.^[16]
• 1970 – Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art opens.
• 1971 – Kobe Matsuri [ja] (festival) begins.^[16]
• 1972 – Sanyō Shinkansen (hi-speed train) begins operating;^[5] Shin-Kobe Station opens.
• 1975
  • Nuclear-armed vessels prohibited from Kobe Port.
  • Nishiyama Memorial Hall [ja] built.
  • Population: 1,360,000.^[25]
• 1977 – Subway Seishin-Yamate Line begins operating.
• 1981 – The first fully Automated guideway transit driverless people mover train technology introduced on Port Island Line.
• 1981 – Kobe Convention Complex [ja] opens.
• 1982 – Kobe City Museum opens.
• 1988 – Subway Hokushin Line begins operating.
• 1989 – Kobe City Hall [ja] built.
• 1991 – Kobe Fashion Mart [ja] built.
• 1993 – Artificial Rokkō Island created.^[18]
• 1995
  • 17 January: The 6.9 M_w  Great Hanshin earthquake shakes the southern Hyōgo Prefecture with a maximum Shindo of VII, leaving 5,502–6,434 people dead, and 251,301–310,000 displaced in the region.
  • June: Post-earthquake city "Restoration Plan" published.^[26]
  • December: Kobe Luminarie festival begins.
  • Kobe Meriken Park Oriental Hotel in business.
• 1996
  • October: Earthquake-damaged Hanshin Expressway rebuilt.^[27]
  • Animation Kobe event begins.
• 1997 – Eco Asia meets in Kobe.^[19]
• 1998 – Akashi Kaikyō Bridge built.
• 2000 – Population: 1,493,595.^[28]

• 2001 – Subway Kaigan Line begins operating; Harborland Station opens.
• 2002 – Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art building opens.
• 2006 – Kobe Airport opens.^[19]
• 2007 – Kobe Planet Film Archive [ja] opens.^[9]
• 2010 – Population: 1,544,200.^[29]
• 2013
  • Kizō Hisamoto becomes mayor.
  • Umie Mosaic [ja] opens.

• Kobe history
• Timeline of Kobe (in Japanese)
• List of mayors of Kobe [ja]

This article incorporates information from the Japanese Wikipedia.

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Published in the 20th century

• "Kōbe", Handbook for Travellers in Japan (9th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1913, hdl:2027/nnc1.50290956
• T. Philip Terry (1914), "Kobe", Terry's Japanese Empire, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, LCCN 14005129
• Robert P. Porter (1915), "Ports and Other Cities: (Kobe)", Japan, the New World-Power (2nd ed.), London: Oxford University Press
• Inoue Nobutaka; et al. (1979). "A Festival with Anonymous Kami: the Kobe Matsuri". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 6 (1/2): 163–185. doi:10.18874/jjrs.6.1-2.1979.163-185. JSTOR 30233196.
• Kobe City Restoration Plan, Kobe City, 1995
• Catherine Bauman (1998). Challenge of Land Use Planning After Urban Earthquakes: Observations from the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. USA: Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. ISBN 978-0-7881-8378-2.

Published in the 21st century

• George Horwich (2000). "Economic Lessons of the Kobe Earthquake". Economic Development and Cultural Change. 48 (3): 521–542. doi:10.1086/452609. JSTOR 10.1086/452609. S2CID 154588521.
• Kobe: Developing a Resilient City (PDF), Local Strategies for Accelerating Sustainability, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives-Canada, 2002 – via United Nations Public Administration Network, Case Study #80
• Robert B. Olshansky; et al. (2006). "Rebuilding Communities Following Disaster: Lessons from Kobe and Los Angeles". Built Environment. 32 (4): 354–374. doi:10.2148/benv.32.4.354. JSTOR 23289510.
• Richard Tames (2008). "Historical Gazetteer: Kobe". A Traveller's History of Japan (4th ed.). USA: Interlink Books. ISBN 978-1-56656-404-5.
• David W. Edgington (2010). Reconstructing Kobe: The Geography of Crisis and Opportunity. University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-5941-7.
• Hugh Cortazzi, ed. (2012). "Kobe". Victorians in Japan: In and Around the Treaty Ports. Bloomsbury. pp. 157–. ISBN 978-1-78093-977-3. (first published in 1987)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kobe, Hyogo.

• "歴史散策 (Stroll through History)" (in Japanese). City of Kobe.
• "Retrospective Kobe (photos)" (in Japanese). City of Kobe.
• Items related to Kobe, various dates (via Europeana).
• Items related to Kobe, various dates (via Digital Public Library of America).