Koberuns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Heavy industry & shipbuilding
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kobe Steel
Kawasaki Heavy is headquartered here and still builds submarines at its Kobe yard. Kobe Steel, aerospace components and rolling stock make this one of Japan's oldest industrial concentrations.
Medical & life sciences
Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster, RIKEN, Sysmex
Port Island holds Japan's largest biomedical cluster, several hundred organisations deep, alongside RIKEN's supercomputer centre. Sysmex, headquartered in Kobe, is a global leader in haematology diagnostics.
Foreign-owned multinationals
P&G Japan, Nestlé Japan, Eli Lilly Japan
An unusual concentration of foreign companies' Japanese headquarters for a city this size — a legacy of the treaty port and of deliberate city policy. It is the main reason English-language corporate roles exist here at all.
Sportswear & consumer goods
ASICS, Onitsuka, Kobe's chemical shoe industry
ASICS began in Kobe in 1949 and is still headquartered here. Nagata ward's shoe manufacturing was devastated by the 1995 fires and has only partly recovered.
Food, drink & confectionery
Nada sake breweries, UCC Ueshima Coffee, Morozoff, Juchheim
The Nada district produces a large share of all Japanese sake using the local Miyamizu water. Japan's Western confectionery and coffee industries also began here with the opening of the port in 1868.
Port & logistics
Port of Kobe, Hanshin Port operators, Kobe Airport
Kobe was among the world's busiest container ports until the 1995 earthquake destroyed the quays and the traffic went elsewhere permanently. It remains a major Japanese port and the city has never stopped trying to rebuild the position.
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