Origins: Jōmon and Yayoi period During the
Jōmon period (7,000 BCE), present-day Osaka was mostly submerged, and the formed a long and wide peninsula separating
Kawachi Bay from the
Seto Inland Sea. ) The earliest evidence of settlements in the Osaka area are the which is located in the central
Chuo-ku district. During the
Yayoi period (300 BCE-250 CE), 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. 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. 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 (written as or ) 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
Nara Prefecture today) in 655, Naniwa remained a vital connection, by land and sea, between
Yamato (modern day
Nara Prefecture),
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 (now
Nara). 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 (Kyoto today) 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. File:Sumiyoshi-taisha,_keidai-2.jpg|
Sumiyoshi Taisha Grand Shrine File:Shitennoji07s3200.jpg|
Shitennō-ji File:Naniwa-no-miya-ato,_zenkei-2.jpg|Remains of Naniwa-no-Miya Palace (2017)
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 (1614–1615). Osaka was long considered Japan's primary economic center, with a large percentage of the population belonging to the merchant class (see
Four divisions of society). Over the course of the
Edo period (1603–1867), Osaka grew into one of Japan's major cities and returned to its ancient role as a lively and important port.
Daimyōs (feudal lords) 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 (modern
Kobe) 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, . File:Osaka Castle 02bs3200.jpg|
Osaka Castle, first built in 1583 File:Osaka-zu byobu.jpg|The Sumiyoshi-matsuri in the 16th century File:The Siege of Osaka Castle.jpg|Japanese painting of the
Siege of Osaka, 1615 File:Newly compiled and enlarged plan of Ōsaka (14042582876).jpg|A 1686 map of Osaka File:Dojima-Rice-Exchange-Osaka-by-Yoshimitsu-Sasaki.png|Dōjima Rice Exchange ukiyo-e by Yoshimitsu Sasaki
Meiji to Heisei period With the enormous changes that characterized the country after the
Meiji Restoration (1868), and the relocation of the capital from
Kyoto to Tokyo, Osaka entered a period of decline. From being the capital of the economy and finance, it became a predominantly industrial center. in 1889 by
government ordinance, with an initial area of , overlapping today's
Chuo and
Nishi wards. Later, the city went through three major expansions to reach its current size of . Osaka was the industrial center most clearly defined in the development of capitalism in Japan. It became known as the "
Manchester and
Melbourne of the Orient". The political system was pluralistic, with a strong emphasis on promoting industrialization and modernization. Literacy was high and the educational system expanded rapidly, producing a middle class with a taste for literature and a willingness to support the arts. In 1927,
General Motors operated a factory called
Osaka Assembly until 1941, manufacturing
Chevrolet,
Cadillac,
Pontiac,
Oldsmobile, and
Buick vehicles, operated and staffed by Japanese workers and managers. In the nearby city of
Ikeda in Osaka Prefecture is the headquarters of
Daihatsu, one of Japan's oldest automobile manufacturers. Like its European and American counterparts, Osaka displayed slums, unemployment, and poverty. In Japan it was here that municipal government first introduced a comprehensive system of poverty relief, copied in part from British models. Osaka policymakers stressed the importance of family formation and mutual assistance as the best way to combat poverty. This minimized the cost of welfare programs. During
World War II,
Osaka came under air raids in 1945 by the
United States Army Air Forces as part of the
air raids on Japan. On March 13, 1945, a total of 329
Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers took part in the raid against Osaka. According to an American
prisoner of war who was held in the city, the air raid took almost the entire night and destroyed of the city. The U.S. bombed the city again twice in June 1945 and again on August 14, a day before
Japan's surrender. In the decades following World War II, Osaka's reconstruction efforts and the industriousness of its residents brought the city even greater prosperity than before the war. Its population surpassed three million in the 1960s, initiating large-scale suburbanization within the prefecture, and eventually doubled to six million by the 1990s. With factories rebuilt and trade revived, Osaka rapidly developed into a major multicultural and financial center from
the 1950s through the 1980s. Osaka Prefecture was chosen as the venue for the prestigious
Expo '70, the first
world's fair ever held in an Asian country. Since then, numerous international events have been held in Osaka, including the 1995
APEC Summit. The modern municipality, which when it was established in 1889 occupied an area of just including the districts of Chūō and Nishi, following three successive expansions has reached an area of . It was one of the first cities in Japan to obtain
designated city status in 1956.
21st century to present The plan to reorganize Osaka and its province into a
metropolis like Tokyo was met with stiff opposition in some municipalities, particularly the highly populated
Sakai.
Tōru Hashimoto then fell back on a project that included the suppression of the 24 wards of Osaka, thus dividing the city into 5 new special districts with a status similar to that of the 23
Special wards of Tokyo. It was introduced by former mayor
Tōru Hashimoto, leader of the reform party
Osaka Restoration Association which he founded. The May 2015 referendum for the approval of this project saw the narrow victory of no, and consequently Hashimoto announced his withdrawal from politics. A second referendum for a merger into 4 semi-autonomous wards was narrowly voted down by 692,996 (50.6%). By 2020 it slipped to the 5th rank of most expensive cities.
Expo 2025 was held at
Yumeshima Island,
Konohana-ku from April to October 2025. Osaka is the third city to host the
World Expo twice, previously hosting
Expo '70. It is also the fourth
World's Fair held in Japan following
Expo '90 and
Expo 2005 in
Aichi Prefecture. With Expo 2025, the event returned to its traditional 5-year scheduling cycle after the
Expo 2020 in
Dubai was delayed to 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The projected visitor count is approximately 28 million. On same site where Expo 2025 was held,
MGM Resorts began construction on
MGM Osaka in April 2025. MGM Osaka will be the first
integrated resort in Japan. It will include 2,300 hotel rooms, a casino, shopping and dining options, convention space and a 3,500-seat theatre. File:Osaka Umeda Sky Building Panoramablick 05.jpg|Skyscrapers in the
Umeda district File:Sennichimae Osaka ca1916.JPG|The Sennichimae area in 1916 File:Osaka after the 1945 air raid.JPG|Osaka after the
bombing in 1945 File:Abeno Harukas 20140507-002.jpg|
Abeno Harukas, the second-tallest building in Japan == Geography ==