1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake (Kobe)

The Great Hanshin Earthquake struck the densely populated city of Kobe and surrounding area at 5:46 AM, collapsing elevated highways, derailing trains, and igniting fires that burned for days across the city. Despite Japan's advanced earthquake engineering, many older buildings constructed before modern codes proved vulnerable, and the disaster exposed critical weaknesses in the country's emergency response systems. The earthquake led to a complete overhaul of Japanese building codes and disaster preparedness protocols.