Osaka

Osaka (大阪市, Ōsaka-shi^?) listen (help·info) is a city in Japan, located at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, in the Kansai region of the main island of Honshū.

Osaka is a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law and the capital city of Osaka Prefecture. Osaka was historically the commercial capital of Japan, and to date the heart of Japan's second largest metropolitan area of Keihanshin (Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto), whose population is 18,643,915.^[1]

A unique record that the city of Osaka holds in Japan is the largest difference between daytime and nighttime population—141%^[2]—a depiction of Osaka's economic– and commerce–centric character. While at night time the population ranks third in the country at 2.6 million, in daytime it surges to 3.7 million, second only after Tokyo.^[3]

Osaka is traditionally considered the "nation's kitchen" (天下の台所, tenka no daidokoro^?) or the gourmet food capital of Japan.