Great Hanshin Earthquake Disaster Reduction Museum

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution in the Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute is Kobe's main museum dedicated to the 1995 earthquake and its aftermath. The museum uses simulations, survivor testimonies, scale models, and archival footage to document the disaster and the city's recovery.

The exhibition is powerfully done and not sensationalised. It covers the earthquake itself, the rescue efforts, the temporary housing period, and the rebuilding — a process that took years and transformed large parts of Kobe. The final sections address disaster preparedness and lessons learned. Near the museum, a section of the earthquake-damaged Kobe Port quayside has been preserved in Meriken Park, its concrete twisted and shattered exactly as the earthquake left it.

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A story
The Great Hanshin Earthquake struck at 5:46 AM on 17 January 1995. In Kobe alone, over 4,000 people died, more than 300,000 were left homeless, and 100,000 buildings collapsed or burned in the fires that followed. The earthquake destroyed an elevated highway — a section of the Hanshin Expressway — that had been built to withstand such events, tipping it on its side as if made of cardboard. Engineers from around the world came to study what had gone wrong.

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