This study clarifies housing recovery problems in areas stricken by the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, using findings of surveys on the situation 5 years later. These problems included a lack of consistency in support measures and the image targeted in urban reconstruction after reconstruction. Results of individual housing recovery lead to confusion about reconstruction in communities and town blocks. Housing reconstruction after the earthquake had two missions: (1) “Lifestyle reconstruction” for victims and (2) implementation realizing a safe city through “city remodeling.” The major lesson of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake would be that, along with the development of solutions based on previous planning in housing recovery and restoration, the importance of proactive measures should be appropriately recognized – alleviation of housing and urban damage taking into account the difficulty of postdisaster planning.