KOBE -- Ten years after the deadly earthquake, the structure of Kobe's traditional foreign community has changed, with fewer Westerners and a growing number of East Asians living in the port city.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Of the Kansai region's three major cities -- Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe -- it is Kobe that has long considered itself the most open to foreigners.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>From the 1870s onward, the city was home to a diverse group of foreign residents -- Americans, Europeans, Chinese and, after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Indians -- each with their own neighborhoods, social clubs and even newspapers printed in their own languages.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Today, Kobe is still home to many foreigners, some of whom can trace their family roots in the city back five generations. But few Westerners are moving in, and many long-term residents are leaving for Tokyo, China or elsewhere.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>At the same time, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of Chinese and Korean residents, especially in private international schools, which were once the domain of Westerners. According to local foreign residents, the trend, which began in the 1980s, accelerated after the quake.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>As of last October, there were 44,449 registered foreigners living in Kobe. These included 23,755 Koreans, 12,203 Chinese, 1,109 Vietnamese and 1,067 Indians. By contrast, there were 1,245 Americans, 463 Britons and 245 Canadians.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Neither the Hyogo Prefectural Government nor the city of Kobe had comparable figures from before the quake.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'I don't think there's any question that we've seen a decrease in the number of Western residents, as many moved out for better opportunities in China or their home countries. One area where we've noticed a real difference is in the international schools, where over the past few years there have been fewer Western children and more from East Asia, especially –

Korea," said George Gibbons, a Kobe resident from Britain who recently retired as an official at Marist Brothers International School.

While exact figures were not available, a Kobe official said the number of ethnic Korean residents has seen a slight increase over the past four years.

He attributed the rise to a growing interest in Kobe as a base in Japan for South Korean professionals, especially those in the medical profession, who come to work at the World Health Organization office in Kobe.

The cause for the decline in the number of Westerners appears to be due less to the quake itself than to the policies of the local governments and business community afterward.