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.
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The city's west side is open to Osaka Bay, and is otherwise completely surrounded by more than ten satellite cities, all of them in Osaka Prefecture See more

Population numbers have been recorded in Osaka since as early as 1873, in the early Meiji era. According to the census in 2005, there were 2,628,811 residents in Osaka, an increase of 30,037 or 1.2% from 2000. There were 1,280,325 households with … See more

The gross city product of Osaka in fiscal year 2004 was ¥21.3 trillion, an increase of 1.2% over the previous year. The figure accounts for about … See more

Origins: Jōmon and Yayoi period
During the Jōmon period (7,000 BCE), present-day Osaka was mostly submerged, and the Uemachi Plateau (上町台地, Uemachi Daichi) formed a 12 km long and 2.5 km wide peninsula separating Kawachi Bay See more

Osaka's sprawling cityscape has been described as "only surpassed by Tokyo as a showcase of the Japanese urban phenomenon". See more

The Osaka City Council is the city's local government formed under the Local Autonomy Law. The council has eighty-nine seats, allocated to the twenty-four wards proportional … See more