A high seismic resistance quay wall experienced the 1995 Hyogo-ken nambu earthquake and survived the disaster. To clarify whether high seismic resistance quay walls can survive future earthquakes, a series of two-dimensional effective stress analyses is conducted. The numerical analyses reveal the mechanism why the high seismic resistance quay wall in Kobe Port survived. The numerical results also indicate that it is possible to significantly reduce the residual deformation of quay wall designed with high seismic coefficient if soil improvement against liquefaction is completed.