Osaka
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third-most populous city in Japan, following the special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With an estimated population of 2,816,247 as of October 1, 2025 and a population density of about 12,505 people per square kilometer, it is the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and the 10th-largest urban area in the world with more than 19 million inhabitants.
Osaka was traditionally considered Japan's economic hub. By the Kofun period it had developed into an important regional port, and in the 7th and 8th centuries, it served briefly as the imperial capital. Osaka continued to flourish during the Edo period and became known as a center of Japanese culture. Following the Meiji Restoration, Osaka greatly expanded in size and underwent rapid industrialization. The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, and by the 1900s, Osaka was the industrial hub in the Meiji and Taishō eras. Osaka made noted contributions to redevelopment, urban planning and zoning standards in the postwar period, and the city developed rapidly as one of the major financial centers in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area.
Osaka is a major financial center of Japan, and it is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in Japan. The city is home to the Osaka Exchange as well as the headquarters of multinational electronics corporations such as Panasonic and Sharp. Osaka is an international center of research and development and is represented by several major universities, notably Osaka University, Osaka Metropolitan University, and Kansai University. Famous landmarks in the city include Osaka Castle, Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, Dōtonbori, Tsūtenkaku in Shinsekai, Tennōji Park, Abeno Harukas, Sumiyoshi Taisha Grand Shrine, and Shitennō-ji, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan.
ss:IOsaka
Etymology
Ōsaka means "large hill" or "large slope". It is unclear when this name gained prominence over Naniwa, but the oldest written evidence for the name dates back to 1496.By the Edo period, and were mixed use, and the writer, in his book Setsuyo Ochiboshu published in 1808, states that the kanji was abhorred because it means "returns to the earth," and thus was used. The kanji is also similar to the word , and means against, so can be understood as "samurai rebellion." became the official name in 1868 after the Meiji Restoration. The older kanji is still in very limited use, usually only in historical contexts. When used as an abbreviation, the modern kanji refers to Osaka City or Osaka Prefecture.
History
Origins: Jōmon and Yayoi period
During the Jōmon period, present-day Osaka was mostly submerged, and the Uemachi Plateau formed a 12 km long and 2.5 km wide peninsula separating Kawachi Bay from the Seto Inland Sea. It is considered one of the first places where inhabitants of Japan settled, both for the favorable geological conditions, rich in fresh water and lush vegetation, and because its position was defensible against military attack.The earliest evidence of settlements in the Osaka area are the which is located in the central Chuo-ku district. Buried human skeletons and a kaizuka were found, as well as shell mounds, oysters, and other interesting archeological discoveries from the Jomon period. In addition to the remains of consumed food, there were arrow heads, stone tools, fishing hooks and crockery with remains from rice processing. It is estimated that the ruins contain 2,000-year-old debris between the Jomon and Yayoi period. The findings of the archeological sites are exhibited in an adjacent building.
In the years between the end of the Jōmon period and the beginning of the Yayoi period, the sediments that were deposited north of the Uemachi peninsula / plateau transformed Kawachi Bay into a lagoon. During the Yayoi period, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular.
At the beginning of the third century CE the grand shrine of Sumiyoshi-taisha was inaugurated near the harbor, commissioned by consort Empress Jingū. This Shinto shrine structure survived historical events, which inaugurated a new style in the construction of Shinto shrines, called Sumiyoshi-zukuri. The maritime panorama enjoyed from the shrine gardens inspired several artists, and nowadays the representations of that type of landscape are called Sumiyoshi drawings.
Towards the end of the Yayoi period the Uemachi plateau-peninsula expanded further, transforming the Kawachi Lagoon into a lake connected to the mouth of the Yodo River, which had widened to the south.
Kofun period
By the Kofun period, Osaka developed into a hub port connecting the region to the western part of Japan. The port of Naniwa-tsu was established and became the most important in Japan. Trade with other areas of the country and the Asian continent intensified. The large numbers of increasingly larger keyhole-shaped Kofun mounds found in the plains of Osaka are evidence of political-power concentration, leading to the formation of a state. The findings in the neighboring plains, including the mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku was discovered nearby in Sakai testify to the status of imperial city that Osaka had reached. Four of these mounds can be seen in Osaka, in which important members of the nobility are buried. They are located in the southern districts of the city and date back to the 5th century. A group of megalithic tombs called Mozu Tombs are located in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.Important works of the Kofun period is the excavation that diverted the course of the Yamato River, whose floods caused extensive damage, and the construction of important roads in the direction of Sakai and Nara. Maritime traffic connected to the port of Naniwa-tsu increased in such a way that huge warehouses were built to stow material arriving and departing.
Asuka and Nara period
The Kojiki records that during 390–430 CE, there was an imperial palace located at Osumi, in what is present day Higashiyodogawa ward, but it may have been a secondary imperial residence rather than a capital.In 645, Emperor Kōtoku built his Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace in what is now Osaka, making it the capital of Japan. The city now known as Osaka was at this time referred to as Naniwa and this name and derivations of it are still in use for districts in central Osaka such as Naniwa and Namba. Although the capital was moved to Asuka in 655, Naniwa remained a vital connection, by land and sea, between Yamato, Korea, and China.
Naniwa was declared the capital again in 744 by order of Emperor Shōmu, and remained so until 745, when the Imperial Court moved back to Heijō-kyō. By the end of the Nara period, Naniwa's seaport roles had been gradually taken over by neighboring areas, but it remained a lively center of river, channel, and land transportation between Heian-kyō and other destinations. Sumiyoshi Taisha Grand Shrine was founded by Tamomi no Sukune in 211 CE. Shitennō-ji was first built in 593 CE and is the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan.
Heian to Edo period
In 1496, Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists established their headquarters in the heavily fortified Ishiyama Hongan-ji, located directly on the site of the old Naniwa Imperial Palace. Oda Nobunaga began a decade-long siege campaign on the temple in 1570 which ultimately resulted in the surrender of the monks and subsequent razing of the temple. Toyotomi Hideyoshi constructed Osaka Castle in its place in 1583. Osaka Castle played a pivotal role in the Siege of Osaka.Osaka was long considered Japan's primary economic center, with a large percentage of the population belonging to the merchant class. Over the course of the Edo period, Osaka grew into one of Japan's major cities and returned to its ancient role as a lively and important port. Daimyōs received most of their income in the form of rice. Merchants in Osaka thus began to organize storehouses where they would store a daimyōs rice in exchange for a fee, trading it for either coin or a form of receipt; essentially a precursor to paper money. Many if not all of these rice brokers also made loans, and would actually become quite wealthy and powerful. Osaka merchants coalesced their shops around Dōjima, where the Rice Exchange was established in 1697 and where the world's first futures market would come to exist to sell rice that was not yet harvested.
The popular culture of Osaka was closely related to ukiyo-e depictions of life in Edo. By 1780, Osaka had cultivated a vibrant arts culture, as typified by its famous Kabuki and Bunraku theaters. In 1837, Ōshio Heihachirō, a low-ranking samurai, led a peasant insurrection in response to the city's unwillingness to support the many poor and suffering families in the area. Approximately one-quarter of the city was razed before shogunal officials put down the rebellion, after which Ōshio killed himself. Osaka was opened to foreign trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Hyogo Town on January 1, 1868, just before the advent of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration. The Kawaguchi foreign settlement, now the Kawaguchi subdistrict, is a legacy of the foreign presence in Osaka.
Osaka residents were stereotyped in Edo literature from at least the 18th century. Jippensha Ikku in 1802 depicted Osakans as stingy almost beyond belief. In 1809, the derogatory term "Kamigata zeeroku" was used by Edo residents to characterize inhabitants of the Osaka region in terms of calculation, shrewdness, lack of civic spirit, and the vulgarity of Osaka dialect. Edo writers aspired to samurai culture, and saw themselves as poor but generous, chaste, and public spirited. Edo writers by contrast saw "zeeroku" as obsequious apprentices, stingy, greedy, gluttonous, and lewd. To some degree, Osaka residents are still stigmatized by Tokyo observers in the same way today, especially in terms of gluttony, evidenced in the phrase,.