Philatelic Culture Museum Arima, Kobe

The Philatelic Culture Museum Arima is a stamp museum in a modern building that displays Japanese and international collections spread across several exhibition spaces. The rooms show thousands of stamps from different periods and countries arranged in organized display cases and wall installations.

The museum was founded in 2005 and preserves postal materials from the Meiji period, including wooden boxes used to transport mail. The collection documents the beginning of Japan's modern postal system and how it changed over more than a century.

The museum shows how stamps tell the story of communication in Japan and documents how the postal service developed since the 1800s. The displays help you understand how people once stayed connected and what role mail delivery played in daily life.

The location is best visited between morning and afternoon and sits in the Arima hot spring area, which is easy to reach by public transport. The museum is not large, so you can see all the exhibitions in roughly an hour.

The museum displays a rare octagonal wall clock that once hung in Japanese post offices and represented the standard for postal service timekeeping. This piece is a fascinating example of how important precise time was for managing mail operations.

Location: Arimachō

Inception: May 6, 2005

Founders: Hiroyuki Kanai

Official opening: May 6, 2005

Address: 663-3, Arima-chō, Kita-ku, Kōbe-shi, Hyōgo-ken 651-1401

Website: http://kitte-museum-arima.jp/english

GPS coordinates: 34.79875,135.25092

Latest update: December 14, 2025 16:42