Quick answerOsaka is a city in Japan, with 2,816,247 people inside the city limits in 2025. The wider metropolitan area had about 19.3 million people in 2025. It is best known for the Osaka Castle, the Street food (takoyaki, okonomiyaki) and the Dotonbori. Its official language is Japanese, and its currency is the Japanese yen.
Osaka is the third-most populous city proper in Japan, with 2,816,247 residents in 2025, and the capital of Osaka Prefecture. It is the largest city of the Keihanshin metropolitan area, Japan's second-largest, and is famous for its food, its castle and the neon streets of Dotonbori.
Key facts
| Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Population (city) | 2,816,247 (2025) |
| Population (metro) | 19,302,746 (2025) · Statistics Bureau of Japan, Keihanshin Major Metropolitan Area (MMA), 2015 Population Census |
| Time zone | Asia/Tokyo |
| Language | Japanese |
| Currency | Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) |
| Coordinates | 34.6939° N, 135.5022° E |
Overview
Osaka is the third-most populous city proper in Japan, with 2,816,247 residents on 1 October 2025, and the capital of Osaka Prefecture. It stands in the Kansai region of Honshu, at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay. Osaka is the largest city of the Keihanshin metropolitan area, which had 19,302,746 people in the 2015 census — the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and one of the ten largest urban areas in the world.
Osaka was an important port by the Kofun period and served briefly as the imperial capital in the seventh and eighth centuries. In the Edo period it became Japan's merchant capital, the city that fed the country, and it is still famous for its food — above all takoyaki and okonomiyaki — and for its plain-spoken, funny, business-minded people.
Its best-known sights are Osaka Castle, built in the 16th century and rebuilt in the 20th, and the neon streets of Dotonbori, where the food stalls and giant signs sum up the city's appetite for life.
What Osaka is known for
- Osaka Castle
- Street food (takoyaki, okonomiyaki)
- Dotonbori
- Merchant culture
Landmarks
- Osaka Castle
- Dotonbori
- Shitenno-ji Temple
- Umeda Sky Building
- Sumiyoshi Taisha
- Osaka Castle Park
Frequently asked questions
What is the population of Osaka?
Osaka had 2,816,247 residents on 1 October 2025, making it the third-most populous city proper in Japan, after Tokyo's special wards and Yokohama. Its metropolitan area, Keihanshin, had 19,302,746 people in the 2015 census, making it Japan's second-largest metropolitan area after Tokyo.
Where is Osaka and what is it known for?
Osaka is in the Kansai region of Honshu, at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, south-west of Kyoto and Kobe. It is the capital of Osaka Prefecture and is famous for its food — takoyaki and okonomiyaki — for Osaka Castle and for the neon streets of Dotonbori. Its coordinates are 34.69° N, 135.50° E.
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Keep exploring
- Japan — the country Osaka is in
- Tokyo — another city in Japan
- Yokohama — another city in Japan
- Nagoya — another city in Japan
- All cities in Japan
- All countries — the full list
Sources & last updated
Last updated: . Figures are shown with their year; where sources disagree, the value is left out rather than estimated.