Osaka

Osaka
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source: wetterkontor.de

Ōsaka City Hall
Ōsaka-shi ; 大阪市
Geographical location in Japan
Region :	Kinki
Prefecture :	Osaka
Coordinates :	34 ° 42 ' N , 135 ° 30' E Coordinates: 34 ° 41 '38 " N , 135 ° 30' 8" E
Basic data
Surface:	225.30 km²
Residents :	2,740,202 ; (October 1, 2019)
Population density :	12,162 inhabitants per km²
Community key :	27100-4
Postal code area :	530-0002-559-0034
Symbols
Flag / coat of arms:
Tree :	cherry
Flower :	Pansy
town hall
Address :	Ōsaka City Hall ; 1 - 3 - 20 , Nakanoshima ; Kita-ku , Ōsaka -shi ; Ōsaka 530-8201
Website URL:	http://www.city.osaka.lg.jp
Location of Osaka in Osaka Prefecture

Osaka ([ 'o: saka ] Audio ^?^/^I ; jap. 大阪市 , new outlet shi ) - formerly also often Ohsaka, Oosaka or Osaka - is a big city in Japan . It is the prefectural capital of Osaka in the heart of the western Japanese region of Kinki or Kansai . The city is the economic center of the region.

With 2.7 million inhabitants, Osaka is the third largest city in Japan after Tokyo and Yokohama and the second largest city by regulation . With around 17.5 million inhabitants in the Keihanshin metropolitan area (around Osaka, Kyōto and Kobe ), Osaka ranks 14th on the list of the largest metropolitan regions in the world and is the opposite of the Kantō region around Tokyo within Japan .

The city is the traditional trade center of Japan and today one of the most important industrial centers and one of the most important ports in Japan. The old city center of Osaka around Shinsaibashi is in the south, the northern center has more of a business character.

According to the Forbes list of the World's Most Expensive Cities To Live 2009 living in Osaka is the second most expensive in the world after Tokyo.

The people of Osaka speak a Japanese dialect that Ben Osaka is called. Osaka is also known as "the kitchen of Japan" and for its comedic entertainment ( Manzai ).

geography

Osaka is located in the west of the Japanese main island of Honshū at the mouth of the Yodo River , on Osaka Bay . The urban area of Osaka corresponds to almost 12% of the area of the prefecture.

City structure

The districts *(-ku) of* the city *(-shi)* Osaka
Code with check digit	Surname		Area (in km ² )	population	Population density (inh / km ² )
Code with check digit	Rōmaji	Kanji	1st October 2019	1st October 2019	01/10/2015 ³
27102-1	Miyakojima-ku	都島区	6.08	107,430	104,727	17,224.8
27103-9	Fukushima-ku	福島区	4.67	77,636	72,484	15,521.2
27104-7	Konohana-ku	此花区	19.25	65,228	66,656	3,462.7
27106-3	Nishi-ku	西区	5.21	102,733	92,430	17,740.9
27107-1	Minato-ku	港区	7.86	80,757	82.035	10,437.0
27108-0	Taishō-ku	大正区	9.43	62,939	65.141	6,907.9
27109-8	Tennōji-ku	天王寺区	4.84	80,800	75,729	15,646.5
27111-0	Naniwa-ku	浪速区	4.39	74,725	69,766	15,892.0
27113-6	Nishi-Yodogawa-ku	西淀川区	14.22	96,066	95,490	6,715.2
27114-4	Higashi-Yodogawa-ku	東淀川区	13.27	176,790	175,530	13,227.6
27115-2	Higashinari-ku	東成区	4.54	83,495	80,563	17,745.2
27116-1	Ikuno-ku	生野区	8.37	129,508	130.167	15,551.6
27117-9	Asahi-ku	旭区	6.32	90,826	91,608	14,494.9
27118-7	Jōtō-ku	城東区	8.38	167.815	164,697	19,653.6
27119-5	Abeno-ku	阿倍野区	5.98	110,457	107,626	17,997.7
27120-9	Sumiyoshi-ku	住吉区	9.4	153.414	154.239	16,408.4
27121-7	Higashi-sumiyoshi-ku	東住吉区	9.75	126,563	126,299	12,953.7
27122-5	Nishinari-ku	西成区	7.37	108,724	111,883	15,180.9
27123-3	Yodogawa-ku	淀川区	12.64	181.983	176.201	13,940.0
27124-1	Tsurumi-ku	鶴見区	8.17	111,480	111,557	13,654.5
27125-0	Suminoe-ku	住之江区	20.69	120,585	122,988	5,944.3
27126-8	Hirano-ku	平野区	15.28	193,399	196,633	12,868.7
27127-6	Kita-ku	北区	10.34	136.288	123,667	11,960.1
27128-4	Chūō-ku	中央区	8.87	100,561	93,069	10,492.6
27100-4	Osaka-shi	大阪市	225.3	2,740,202	2,691,185	11,944.9

On February 13, 1989, the Ku Kita (27101-2) and Ōyodo (27112-8, 大淀区 ) were combined to form the new Kita-ku.
On the same day, the East (27105-5, 東区 Higashi-ku ) and South (27110-1, 南区 Minami-ku ) districts merged to form the new Central District (Chūō-ku) .

Satellite photo of Osaka Bay

Population development of the city

Data on the day of the census (October 1st)
year	population			Gender ratio men per 100 women	Area (in km ² )	Population density (inh / km ² )
year	all in all	male	Female	Gender ratio men per 100 women	Area (in km ² )	Population density (inh / km ² )
1920	1,252,983	673,648	579,335	116.3	58.45	21436.8
1925	2,114,804	1,126,256	988,548	113.6	181.68	11640.3
1930	2,453,573	1,303,862	1,149,711	113.4	185.13	13253.2
1935	2,989,874	1,594,176	1,395,698	114.2	187.33	15960.5
1940	3,252,340	1,691,176	1,561,164	108.3	187.44	17351.4
1945	1,102,959	553,697	549.262	100.8	187.44	5884.3
1947	1,559,310	781.177	778.133	100.4	187.44	8319.0
1950	1,956,136	975,547	980,589	99.5	185.17	10564.0
1955	2,547,316	1,281,416	1,265,900	101.2	202.31	12591.2
1960	3,011,563	1,542,833	1,468,730	105.0	202.18	14895.5
1965	3,156,222	1,598,376	1,557,846	102.6	203.04	15544.8
1970	2,980,487	1,490,779	1,489,708	100.1	205.60	14496.5
1975	2,778,987	1,378,287	1,400,700	98.4	208.11	13353.5
1980	2,648,180	1,304,599	1,343,581	97.1	210.95	12553.6
1985	2,636,249	1,295,771	1,340,478	96.7	213.08	12372.1
1990	2,623,801	1,292,747	1,331,054	97.1	220.37	11906.3
1995	2,602,421	1,278,212	1.324.209	96.5	220.66	11793.8
2000	2,598,774	1,273,121	1,325,653	96.0	221.30	11743.2
2005	2,628,811	1,280,325	1,348,486	94.9	222.11	11835.6
2010	2,665,314	1,293,798	1,371,516	94.3	222.47	11980.6
2015	2,691,185	1,302,562	1,388,623	93.8	225.21	11949.7

history

The city of Osaka was originally called Naniwa . The city was called Naniwa no miyako or Naniwa-kyō ( 難波京 , dt. "Imperial residence city Naniwa") from 645 to 655 under the Kōtoku - tennō and finally in 744 under Shōmu -tennō the capital of Japan . However, earlier Tennō probably had their seat in Naniwa, z. B. mentions the Nihonshoki that the Ōjin -tennō (r. 270-310) moved to the Ōsumi palace ( 大隅宮 , Ōsumi no miya ) in Naniwa.

Important land and sea connections between Yamato (now Nara Prefecture ), Korea and China have existed since the earliest times . The former Settsu Province now forms the northern part of Osaka Prefecture with part of what is now Hyōgo Prefecture .

The Buddhist Jōdo Shinshū religious community founded its headquarters in Ishiyama (now part of Osaka) in 1496 in the heavily fortified temple of Ishiyama Hongan-ji . Oda Nobunaga began the siege of the temple in 1576, which lasted four years. The monks surrendered in 1580, the temple was completely destroyed and Toyotomi Hideyoshi built his own castle, Osaka Castle, on the square .

Osaka was called Ōzaka ( 大坂 ) from the Middle Ages to the premodern period . At the beginning of the Meiji period , the city was renamed Osaka by the government. Nowadays Osaka is the third largest Japanese city after Tokyo and Yokohama and the most important in terms of goods economy, since the most important markets for the exchange of goods are located there.

Since the Meiji Restoration, there has been the city prefecture (-fu) Osaka , which as the successor to the shogunate administration for the city (Ōsaka-machi- bugyō ) initially only consisted of the city of Osaka, but soon around areas in the province of Settsu, later also in the Izumi, Kawachi and Yamato provinces was expanded. The forerunners of the modern city of Osaka, the four urban districts / districts (-ku) Higashi (east), Nishi (west), Kita (north) and Minami (south) were separated from the districts (-gun) Higashinari and Nishinari in 1878/79 . During the modernization of the municipal regulations in 1888/89, the modern Ōsaka-shi emerged, but after the exception from the city regulations (shisei tokurei) such as Tokyo and Kyōto remained without an independent city administration until 1898 and as an immediate city ruled directly by the governor of the prefecture has been. By 1955, in several steps, including an extensive expansion in 1925, the districts of Higashinari and Nishinari were completely incorporated into the city of Osaka, along with parts of other districts. In the 1920s the population exceeded that of the city of Tokyo, and Osaka was temporarily the largest city in Japan until again in 1932 Tokyo more than doubled its population due to extensive incorporations ("Greater Tokyo"). Since 1922, the city of Osaka has been one of the six major cities with a little more self-government or reduced possibilities for intervention by the Reich Ministry of the Interior / the governor of the prefecture. During the occupation, as in all municipalities and prefectures, the self-government was reformed, until 1954 there was also a municipal police force ( Ōsaka-shi Keishi-chō ) . As a "special city" ( tokubetsu-shi ) , Ōsaka-shi was to become a prefecture-independent city, but this was never implemented; Instead, in 1956 it became one of the first five large cities by regulation ( seirei shitei toshi ) with expanded self-government. The present 24 districts have existed since a reorganization in 1989.

During the Second World War , the city was bombed several times with napalm bombs by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between March 1945 and August 1945 . The attacks destroyed around 35% of the urban area, leaving 12,620 dead and 23,037 injured. The attacks were 40 km ² of the city burned down and 1,134,552 people were left homeless. (see air raids on Osaka )

In 2019, the G20 summit took place in Osaka . The topics covered included the economy within the group of states.

Politics and administration

Group strengths in the city council
(as of May 14, 2019)

A total of 83 seats

Osaka Ishin no Kai : 40

Jiyūminshutō ・ Shimin Club (" Liberal Democratic Party , Citizens Club "): 19

Kōmeitō : 18

KPY : 4

Shimin to tsunagaru ・ kurashi ga daiichi (~ “ Connecting with the Citizens, Life Comes First”): 2

The former governor of Osaka Ichirō Matsui from the Osaka Ishin no Kai was elected mayor of Osaka ( saka-shichō ) in the unified regional elections in April 2019 . At the same time, the party won both Osaka prefectural elections. In the Osaka City Council she won a clear majority with 40 seats, but narrowly missed the absolute majority. The Ishin no Kai wants to make a new attempt to abolish the city of Osaka and to set up “special districts” similar to those of Tokyo Prefecture in its place . A first referendum on this just failed in 2015. The planned date for the second referendum, decided by the joint conference of the prefecture and city of Osaka, is November 1, 2020. Consultations with the national government are still pending; In addition, the situation of the coronavirus pandemic is to be reviewed around September 2020 before the Osaka Prefectural Parliament and Osaka City Parliament take a final decision. If the schedule holds and the referendum is successful, the city of Osaka would be replaced by four “special districts” of Osaka prefecture on January 1, 2025.

The Osaka City Council ( Ōsaka-shikai ) has consisted of 83 MPs from 24 constituencies, which are identical to the city districts, since 2019. The city of Osaka is represented in the 88-member prefectural parliament of Osaka (Ōsaka-fugikai) with a total of 27 members, 15 of them from single-mandate constituencies. Here, too, most of the city districts function as an electoral district, with three constituencies each comprising two city districts.

In elections to the national lower house , the city extends into constituencies 1 to 6 of the prefecture, with constituency Osaka 6 including parts of the city of Osaka and the cities of Moriguchi and Kadoma. In the 2017 general election , Ishin no Kai lost its only directly elected MP from Osaka, while Kōmeitō and LDP each won three seats.

traffic

With the Kansai International Airport , Osaka has had a modern international airport since 1994 on an artificial island off the coast of the bay about 60 km south of the city. The cities of Nara , Kobe and Kyoto also belong to its catchment area . There are connections between the city and the airport by bus and train ( Rapīto , Haruka ).

Osaka International Airport in Itami (north of Osaka) and Toyonaka are mainly used for domestic flights . Due to its location in the middle of the residential area near Osaka, Kobe and Kyōto , a flight ban from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. applies to limit noise pollution. Originally, Itami was supposed to close with the construction of Kansai Airport.

The municipal transport office, founded in 1903 with the installation of the Osaka tram, which was discontinued in 1969 as the oldest municipal transport company in Japan, operates an extensive bus network and a subway network with eight lines. In addition to this, there is a network of former state ( JR West ) and privately run railways that connect the city center with its neighboring towns. The Keihan and Hankyū lines connect with Kyoto, the Hanshin and Hankyū lines with Kobe , the Kintetsu lines with Nara and Nagoya and the main Nankai line with Wakayama . The private Hankai tram also runs from the south of the city to neighboring Sakai .

Shinkansen bullet trains of the Tōkaidō and San'yō Shinkansen stop at Shin-Osaka Station in Yodogawa Ward .

economy

According to a study from 2014, the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area has a gross domestic product of 671 billion US dollars (KKB). In the ranking of the best performing metropolitan regions worldwide, it took 7th place.

In the past, Osaka was the center of Japanese trade, especially in the Middle Ages and the pre-modern times. Most large corporations today have their main offices in Tokyo, which they relocated from Osaka in the late 1990s. However, some companies are based in Osaka, e.g. B. Keyence , Daiwa House Industry , Sekisui House . The economic downturn following the end of the " bubble economy " hit Osaka and Kansai particularly hard with bankruptcies, unemployment and capital withdrawals, the real estate market stagnated, domestic and foreign investors withdrew or relocated to Kanto.

In 1970, the first world exhibition in Asia, the Expo '70 , took place outside of Osaka . With this world exhibition under the motto “Progress and Harmony for Humanity”, Japan became a major industrial power in the world after the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. On March 14, 1970, Emperor Hirohito opened the expo in front of 7,000 invited guests. 77 states presented themselves in Osaka by September 13th. The landmark of the exhibition was the 102 m high tower of the Soviet pavilion.

Tourism now plays an important role in the city's economy. With 7 million foreign visitors, Osaka was the 17th most visited city in the world in 2016. Tourists brought in $ 3.4 billion in revenue that same year. Most of the foreign visitors came from the People's Republic of China .

Culture and sport

Sports Festival in Osaka (1931)

Osaka has several important venues for classical Japanese theater, such as the Kabuki Theater Shin Kabuki-za , the Kyōgen Theater Ōsaka Nōgaku Kaikan and the National Bunraku Theater. The city is also known for its comedic entertainment art ( Manzai ). Larger festivals are the Midosuji Parade and the Tenjin Matsuri.

The city of Osaka is home to the Orix Buffaloes , a baseball team of the Pacific League , which plays their home games in the Osaka Dome , as well as a team of the Japanese professional soccer league , namely Cerezo Osaka . This makes the city the only major football center outside of the greater Tokyo area. Cerezo's rivals Gamba Osaka are based in Suita City, Osaka Prefecture.

The Osaka Women's Marathon , a race for the female running elite, has been held in January since 1982 . The Osaka Marathon was launched in 2011 and is also open to amateur athletes of both sexes.

The 2007 World Athletics Championships were held in Osaka . 203 associations sent almost 2,000 athletes to the metropolis.

education

In Osaka are u. a. a Kansai University campus, a Kwansei Gakuin University campus , Osaka Municipal University , Sōai University , the main campus of Osaka University of Technology and Osaka University of Economics . The campuses of the highly regarded Osaka State University , on the other hand, are located in the surrounding Osaka Prefecture .

Sights and miscellaneous

and display information about the image

Osaka at night as seen from the Umeda Sky Building

The Tsūtenkaku observation tower in the south of the city

The Shinto shrines Sumiyoshi-Taisha and Osaka Tenman-gū

The Namba Shrine

The Osaka Castle

The Kaiyūkan , a large aquarium located in Osaka Bay

The historical museum opened in 2001.

The amusement park - resort Universal Studios Japan operated by NBCUniversal

The Sukunahikona-jinja

Osaka Castle
Sumiyoshi Taisha
Tsutenkaku at night
The town hall at night
Sky Building in Umeda
Pagoda at Shitennō-ji
Umeda
City Hall on Nakanoshima
Tower of Life in Tsurumi Ryokuchi Park

Personalities

Town twinning

Osaka has seven official sister cities:

Germany Hamburg , Germany
Brazil São Paulo , Brazil
United States Chicago , United States
China People's Republic Shanghai , People's Republic of China
Australia Melbourne , Australia
Russia Saint Petersburg , Russia
Italy Milan , Italy

A city partnership with San Francisco that was entered into in 1957 was ended in 2018 in protest against a monument erected there for the so-called comfort women .

Climate table

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Osaka

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	9.1	9.5	12.8	19.5	24.0	27.3	31.2	32.8	28.6	22.7	17.0	11.7	O	20.6
Min. Temperature (° C)	2.1	2.4	4.6	10.2	14.9	19.5	23.7	24.8	20.8	14.5	9.0	4.2	O	12.6

Precipitation ( mm )	46	60	102	134	139	206	157	95	172	108	65	34	Σ	1,318

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	4.5	4.5	5.2	5.9	6.4	5.1	5.9	6.7	5.1	5.1	4.8	4.6	O	5.3

Water temperature (° C)	14th	14th	15th	16	19th	22nd	25th	26th	24	23	19th	16	O	19.4

Humidity ( % )	62	62	61	62	64	69	71	68	69	67	66	63	O	65.3

Source: wetterkontor.de

Web links

Commons : Osaka - album containing pictures, videos and audio files

Wikivoyage: Osaka Travel Guide

Wikinews: Osaka - on the news

Official homepage (English, Japanese, French, Chinese, Korean)

Individual evidence

↑ In Depth: World's Most Expensive Cities To Live. Most expensive cities in the world to live in. In: Forbes. July 7, 2009, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on August 20, 2016 .
↑ Kokudo Chiriin : 令和元年全国都道府県市区町村別面積調（１０月１日時点） , pp. 64: 27 大阪府 (Japanese), accessed June 22, 2020.
↑ 大阪府／大阪府の毎月推計人口 . 大阪府 , October 1, 2019, accessed November 1, 2019 (Japanese).
↑ XLS file from the Osaka website (Japanese) , accessed March 17, 2019
↑ Ōsaka shikai: MPs by Group (Japanese), accessed May 20, 2019.
↑ 大阪都構想の制度案決定法定協で可決、住民投票へ. In: nikkei.com . June 19, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020 (Japanese).
↑ 大阪都構想住民投票 “想定外” の追い風維新が年内実施にこだわる理由. In: Mainichi Shimbun . June 19, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020 (Japanese).
^ Alan Berube, Jesus Leal Trujillo, Tao Ran, and Joseph Parilla: Global Metro Monitor . In: Brookings . January 22, 2015 ( brookings.edu [accessed July 19, 2018]).
↑ Global Destination Cities Report 2016. (No longer available online.) Mastercard, archived from the original on September 24, 2016 ; accessed on July 11, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Justin McCurry: Osaka drops San Francisco as sister city over 'comfort women' statue. In: The Guardian . October 4, 2018, accessed October 4, 2018 .

[1] In Depth: World's Most Expensive Cities To Live. Most expensive cities in the world to live in. In: Forbes. July 7, 2009, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on August 20, 2016 .

[2] Kokudo Chiriin : 令和元年全国都道府県市区町村別面積調（１０月１日時点） , pp. 64: 27 大阪府 (Japanese), accessed June 22, 2020.

[3] 大阪府／大阪府の毎月推計人口 . 大阪府 , October 1, 2019, accessed November 1, 2019 (Japanese).

[4] XLS file from the Osaka website (Japanese) , accessed March 17, 2019

[5] Ōsaka shikai: MPs by Group (Japanese), accessed May 20, 2019.

[6] 大阪都構想の制度案決定法定協で可決、住民投票へ. In: nikkei.com . June 19, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020 (Japanese).

[7] 大阪都構想住民投票 “想定外” の追い風維新が年内実施にこだわる理由. In: Mainichi Shimbun . June 19, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020 (Japanese).

[8] Alan Berube, Jesus Leal Trujillo, Tao Ran, and Joseph Parilla: Global Metro Monitor . In: Brookings . January 22, 2015 ( brookings.edu [accessed July 19, 2018]).

[9] Global Destination Cities Report 2016. (No longer available online.) Mastercard, archived from the original on September 24, 2016 ; accessed on July 11, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[10] Justin McCurry: Osaka drops San Francisco as sister city over 'comfort women' statue. In: The Guardian . October 4, 2018, accessed October 4, 2018 .