Naniwa-ku, Osaka


Naniwa-ku is one of 24 wards of Osaka, Japan. It has an area of 4.37 km2, and a population of 51,567.

General information

Largely a residential area itself, Naniwa-ku is adjacent to and has in recent years blurred into the Namba district, which is south Osaka's transport hub and centre of commerce, entertainment, shopping, and culture.
Naniwa retains significant Burakumin and Korean communities. The plight and struggle of both communities in Japan is represented in Liberty Osaka.
Almost the entire ward was decimated in air attacks during bombing in March 1945. Few buildings pre-dating World War II remain.

Attractions

Naniwa is the site of a number of well-known commercial areas like Nipponbashi, where Capcom and SNK are headquartered. Locally known as Den Den Town, Nipponbashi was traditionally a concentration for Osaka's electrical appliance outlets, though the emergence of several large electrical department stores over in recent years has seen its shop space make a gradual shift away from the electrical appliance sector. Directly to its south is Shin Sekai, an entertainment district famous for the Tsutenkaku Tower and Janjan Alley.
Amongst Naniwa's sites is the Imamiya Ebisu Shrine, which sponsors the lively Toka Ebisu Festival. Naniwa is the site of the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, where the Grand Sumo Tournament is held in March and Liberty Osaka - the Osaka Human Rights Museum. Naniwa also contains the massive modern shopping, dining, and entertainment complex, Namba Parks.

Landmarks

Newspaper

  • Sankei Shimbun - Namba Sankei Building

    FM Radio Station

  • FM OSAKA - Minatomachi River Place

    Train stations

;JR West
;Nankai Railway
;Hanshin Railway
;Osaka Metro
;Hankai Tramway

Education

The Osaka Chinese School is in Naniwa-ku.

Companies headquartered in Naniwa-ku, Osaka

  • Kubota
  • Nankai Electric Railway
  • Pixela Corporation
  • Tabio

    Notable people from Naniwa-ku, Osaka

  • Atomi Kakei, Japanese calligrapher, painter, scholar and educator
  • Daizen Takahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler
  • Junko Noda, Japanese voice actress and singer
  • Kazumi Takahashi, Japanese novelist and scholar
  • Masatoshi Hamada, Japanese comedian
  • Shinobu Orikuchi, Japanese ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet
  • Nakamoto Yuta, japanese singer, kpop group member NCT, NCT127, actor