Hmm. In 1999/2000 I had a $110 Kobe Beef cheeseburger (complete with truffles) at the Burger Bar in Vegas, so either (A) it wasn't Kobe Beef or (B) there was some limited exporting prior to 2012.
It wasn't, sorry. There are farms in the US that try to mimic the process, and there've been cattle flown in from Japan, which might have been what you had (but who knows, the real product isn't trademarked here).
Kobe beef is also around $300-400 for 1kg, so maybe $50-100 in ingredients alone, in Japan, for a burger, let alone what it costs when imported.
Not that it matters a great deal. You probably still got something good. There's other highly (and higher) valued beef in Japan too, Kobe is just a big prestigious brand.
Apparently, "Kobe" is used to describe many things, and, given that a prominent place like the burger bar is still selling their burgers 10 years later, their doesn't appear to be a lot of trademark police chasing people down.
"Kobe beef" is trademarked in Japan and is legally protected there, but not in the US, where anyone is free to use it as they like. You can still prove a beef cut has come from the real source via certification.
These things usually get codified in trade agreements. It seems that Japan hasn't been particularly concerned about protecting Kobe beef internationally, likely because there are so few exports simply due to production limits.
Various factors, some of which have been touched upon below:
1. There is almost 0 chance that you've tasted beef from a wagyu cow from the city of Kobe. Aside from import/export costs, the cost in Japan (having actually eaten Kobe beef from Kobe) is far closer to about $400-600 per steak (2kg perhaps?)
