Kobe Chinatown Nankinmachi: Roshoki, Access & Motomachi

Kobe Chinatown, Nankinmachi (南京町), is counted with Yokohama and Nagasaki as one of Japan's three big Chinatowns. Chinese restaurants and shops fill an area about 270m east to west and 110m north to south. Get off the City Loop bus at stop CL15, Nankinmachi East Exit. Roshoki, the best-known place to eat here, is famous for its butaman (pork buns).

Kobe Chinatown: Basics and How to Get There

Kobe Chinatown, Nankinmachi (南京町), grew up after the Port of Kobe opened, when Chinese residents settled here and opened shops. Today more than 100 businesses are packed in, from Chinese restaurants to grocery stores and general goods shops.

Nankinmachi has three gates: Chōanmon (長安門) on the east side, Kaieimon (海栄門) on the south and Seianmon (西安門) on the west. In the middle of the street is Nankinmachi Square with Azumaya (あづまや), a Chinese-style pavilion. The shops around it sell butaman, dim sum and other Chinese snacks.

📍 View Kobe Chinatown Nankinmachi on Google Maps

✅ How to get to Nankinmachi

The City Loop bus route and the stop locations are in the post below.

👉 Kobe City Loop Bus: 1-Day Pass, Timetable, Route & Stops

Where to Eat in Nankinmachi: Roshoki and YUNYUN

Nankinmachi is full of shops selling Chinese snacks like butaman and xiaolongbao. Two of the best known are Roshoki for butaman and YUNYUN for grilled xiaolongbao.

① YUNYUN grilled xiaolongbao

YUNYUN specializes in grilled xiaolongbao and bifun (rice noodles). It's about 50m east of Nankinmachi Square, with seating on the second floor where you can eat.

The signature dish, grilled xiaolongbao (焼小籠包), is cooked on an iron griddle until the bottoms turn golden. Expect a chewy wrapper, a crisp base and hot juices inside.

② Roshoki butaman

Roshoki is a butaman shop founded in 1915. It started out selling buns from China's Tianjin region, adjusted to suit Japanese tastes, and its signature item is butaman: small steamed buns filled with pork.

The main store is being renovated, so for now Roshoki is operating temporarily out of Soke Paotsukan (曹家包子館), across from Nankinmachi Square. The original store is scheduled to reopen on November 11, 2026.

I went on a weekday and waited about 20 minutes to buy my butaman. Roshoki's official website puts the average wait on weekends and holidays at 30 minutes to an hour.

RIKI Bakery Kobe: A Tabelog Top 100 Bakery

Kobe is known as a city with a lot of bakeries. Western-style bakeries opened in the foreign settlement after the Port of Kobe opened, and bread culture spread from there. A 2021 survey found that Kobe had the most bakeries per capita of Japan's 20 major cities.

RIKI opened in 2013 and sells croissants, Danish pastries and many other breads. It's closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I couldn't go in on the Wednesday I visited.

Kobe Motomachi Shopping Street Arcade

Kobe Motomachi Shopping Street (神戸元町商店街) is a covered shopping arcade about 1.2km long, just north of Nankinmachi. Around 300 shops line it from 1-bangai at the east end to 6-chome at the west: clothing and general goods stores, cafés, old sweet shops and more.

Motomachi got its current name in 1874 and grew into a shopping street as Western culture came in after the Port of Kobe opened. Long-running shops and new ones still sit side by side.

The east entrance of the arcade has a gate decorated with stained glass called La Luce (ラ・ルーチェ).

📍 View Motomachi Shopping Street on Google Maps

1-bangai has the main store of Juchheim, one of Kobe's best-known Western confectionery brands, along with shoe, fashion and general goods stores. The whole street is covered by an arcade roof, so you can keep walking under cover even when it rains. Each shop sets its own hours and closing days.

Daimaru Kobe Department Store

Daimaru Kobe (大丸神戸店) is a department store in Kobe's old foreign settlement, east of Motomachi Shopping Street. It moved to its current site in 1927. The building is known for its Western-style facade, a colonnaded walkway along the outside and streetlamps shaped like old gas lamps.

Inside are fashion, cosmetics and general goods floors, a food hall and restaurants. The B1 food hall is especially good for browsing Kobe Western-style sweets, Japanese sweets and bento. Luxury brand stores also continue through the streets of the old settlement around it.

I had wanted to visit the main L'AVENUE store too, but it was closed on the Wednesday I went. Luckily, I found a L'AVENUE pop-up at Daimaru Kobe that day and bought a financier and a few other sweets.

✅ Tax-free at Daimaru Kobe

Foreign visitors who meet the conditions can get tax-free processing at the tax-free counter on B2. Bring the items bought that day, the receipts and your passport. As of October 2026, a 1.55% fee applies to tax-free items.

From November 1, 2026, though, Japan's tax-free system changes: you pay consumption tax at purchase and get it refunded after customs confirms your goods when you leave Japan. The new procedure is covered in the post below.

👉 Japan Tax-Free Change Nov 2026: How the New Refund Works

The information desk on 1F also gives foreign visitors a 5% discount coupon that works at some stores. Some items are excluded from both tax-free and the coupon, so check before you buy.

👉 Daimaru Matsuzakaya Coupon: 5% Off + Tax-Free & Food Voucher

I tried butaman in Nankinmachi, then walked the Motomachi shopping street. At Daimaru Kobe I came across a L'AVENUE pop-up I hadn't expected. That was my afternoon in Kobe, moving from street food to an old shopping street.

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