Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd.

Because the Railway Operations Bureau opposed a private line parallel to the government railway, the company could not proceed under the Private Railways Act. It instead relied on the Tramway Ordinance, winning from the senior Home Ministry official Kōi Furuichi the understanding that "it should suffice for some part of the line to lie on a road", and built almost the entire route on dedicated right-of-way suited to fast running. The Main Line opened between Kobe (Sannomiya) and Osaka (Dejimabashi) on 12 April 1905. Hanshin was Japan's fourteenth electric railway operator and the pioneer interurban of Japan — the country's oldest intercity electric railway. Its high-specification track and rolling stock were modelled on the American interurbans of the era, reflecting chief engineer Shōzō Misaki, who had inspected the United States. A legacy of routing through the villages of the old Saigoku Kaidō is that stations stand on average only about one kilometre apart.

When Hanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu — today's Hankyu — opened its parallel Kobe Main Line in 1920, the two companies fell into a fierce contest for passengers that ranged from handing out free handkerchiefs on board to outright mutual obstruction of sales activities. Hanshin answered with ever more frequent service under the famous slogan "the Hanshin train you can board without waiting" (matazu ni noreru Hanshin densha). The interwar years also fixed the company's shape beyond the rails: the Dempō Line — today's Hanshin Namba Line — opened on 20 January 1924 and Hanshin Koshien Stadium on 1 August of the same year, the "Hanshin Mart" forerunner of the Hanshin Department Store opened at Umeda in March 1933, a new underground line carried the railway from Iwaya into Sannomiya in June 1933, and on 10 December 1935 the company established the Osaka Baseball Club — the Osaka Tigers, renamed the Hanshin Tigers in 1961, which it owns to this day.

After the war Hanshin modernised: large-bodied 3011-type cars and a non-stop Umeda–Sannomiya limited express arrived in 1954, the high-acceleration "Jet Car" local trains in 1958, and Japan's first armature-chopper-controlled cars in 1970. The Kobe Rapid Transit Railway opened on 7 April 1968, beginning reciprocal through running with Sanyo Electric Railway; the Kokudō, Koshien and Kita-Osaka tram lines closed in 1975; the network was reclassified from tramway to railway in 1977; and in 1983 Hanshin became the first private railway in Japan to complete air-conditioning of its entire revenue fleet.

On 17 January 1995 the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake devastated the network and the Ishiyagawa depot, and 41 cars had to be scrapped. The Main Line was restored over its full length on 26 June 1995, and with the new 9000 series entering service in March 1996 the fleet returned to pre-quake strength. On 15 February 1998 the company began running direct limited expresses through to Sanyo Himeji. In 2006, after a takeover battle set off by the Murakami Fund, a tender offer by Hankyu Holdings succeeded on 19 June, making Hanshin a 64.76% subsidiary; a share exchange on 1 October then made it a wholly owned subsidiary of the renamed Hankyu Hanshin Holdings — the first management integration of major private railways in postwar Japan.

On 20 March 2009 the Hanshin Namba Line opened between Nishikujō and Ōsaka-Namba, beginning through services with Kintetsu and completing a private-rail network joining Kobe (Sannomiya), Osaka (Namba) and Nara; Hanshin is the only major private railway in Kansai to reach both of Osaka's twin downtowns, Kita and Minami, on its own lines. After taking over Kobe Kosoku Line operation in 2010, the network measures 48.9 operating kilometres — the Main Line (32.1 km), Hanshin Namba Line (10.1 km), Mukogawa Line (1.7 km) and the Category-2 Kobe Kosoku Line (5.0 km) — the second-shortest among Japan's major private railways after Sagami Railway. Grade separation has been pushed so far that only 23 level crossings remained in March 2022, the second fewest among the sixteen majors after Tokyo Metro. The Hanshin Tigers' home ground, Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, stands in front of Kōshien Station on the Main Line.

• 189912 June: the company was established as Settsu Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (capital 1.5 million yen), with Shūzō Toyama as its first president; on 7 July it was renamed Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd.
• 190512 April: the Main Line opened between Kobe (Sannomiya) and Osaka (Dejimabashi) — the opening that made Hanshin the pioneer interurban of Japan.
• 192420 January: the Dempō Line — later the Nishi-Osaka Line and today's Hanshin Namba Line — opened; 1 August: Hanshin Koshien Stadium opened.
• 193329 March: the "Hanshin Mart", forerunner of the Hanshin Department Store, opened at the old Umeda stop; 17 June: the new underground line between Iwaya and Sannomiya opened.
• 193510 December: the company established the Osaka Baseball Club (the Osaka Tigers); the corporation and team were renamed Hanshin Tigers on 1 April 1961.
• 195415 September: the first large-bodied cars, the 3011 type, entered service, and non-stop limited express running began between Umeda and Sannomiya.
• 195824 July: the first-generation 5001-type "Jet Car" high-acceleration local trains entered revenue service.
• 19687 April: the Kobe Rapid Transit Railway opened and reciprocal through running with Sanyo Electric Railway began.
• 198330 April: Hanshin completed air-conditioning of all its revenue cars, the first private railway in Japan to do so.
• 199517 January: the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (Hyōgo-ken Nanbu Earthquake) severely damaged the lines and the Ishiyagawa depot, and 41 cars were scrapped; the Main Line was restored over its full length on 26 June.
• 199815 February: direct limited express services began running between Umeda and Sanyo Himeji.
• 200619 June: a tender offer by Hankyu Holdings, set off by the Murakami Fund takeover battle, succeeded — a transaction valued at about US$2.2 billion — making Hanshin a 64.76% subsidiary; 1 October: a share exchange made Hanshin a wholly owned subsidiary of the renamed Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, the first management integration of major private railways in postwar Japan.
• 200920 March: the Hanshin Namba Line opened between Nishikujō and Ōsaka-Namba and reciprocal through running with Kintetsu began; the Nishi-Osaka Line was renamed the Hanshin Namba Line.
• 20101 October: Hanshin took over station and operating duties on the Kobe Kosoku Line from Kobe Rapid Transit Railway, bringing the network to its current 48.9 km.