At the raw-materials East Wharf of Kobe Steel's Kakogawa Works, the 1995 earthquake caused the unloader cranes to collapse. The wharf was repaired and back in operation nine months after the quake. How Kobe Steel recovered from the earthquake Nippon Steel and other Japanese steelmakers help Kobe Steel rebuild its wharf. More than two years later, visitors no longer see traces of the havoc in the streets of Kobe or at the steelworks.
Business is as usual in Kobe.
The earthquake's devastation prompted Kobe's municipal government to turn land on the seaside occupied by idle factories into a new urban center. Kobe Steel is participating in the project, a symbol of the restoration of Kobe City. It will be a multimedia city center with fiberoptic cables and hookups to the Internet, a museum, and an animated-film studio. It will be on land that formerly was the site of Kobe Steel's industrial-machinery factory. The center will study how social, cultural, economic, demographic, epidemiologic, and environmental factors affect health.