Each week, here at Osaka.com, we bring you a selection of some of the top stories about Osaka making the local and national news here in Japan. Sometimes it’s serious, sometimes it’s funny, but it’s always direct to you, from Osaka.
Here’s a look at some of the stories hitting the headlines in Osaka this week.
Table of Contents
Scheme to Revitalize Umeda Nears Completion
Osaka’s business community received a welcome update this week. The largest urban regeneration scheme in the city’s history is nearly complete.
“Umekita” as the area has been named, is a 240,000 square meter development adjacent to JR Osaka Station. It previously served as a freight storage yard for JR’s numerous trains that transit through Osaka. However, the area has been under planned redevelopment since 2004. However, things really kicked into high gear after the overhaul of Osaka Station itself was completed about 15 years ago.
The first phase of the redevelopment scheme commenced in 2010 and was completed in 2013 with the opening of Grand Front Osaka, a twin-towered shopping and leisure complex.
Scheme Ends “Eyesore” of Waste Ground in Northern Umeda
For several years, both residents and visitors alike decried the state of the waste ground between Grand Front Osaka and the Umeda Sky Building. The area between these two towering landmarks of the Osaka skyline was, until fairly recently a barren wasteland. It remained this way for several years as initial landscaping and surveying gave way to foundational planning. However, slowly but surely, as the scheme progressed the area began to take shape.
Today it is utterly unrecognizable from the mud and weeds that it used to be.
The new phase, completed this week represents another 45,000 square meters of completed development. A number of high profile tenants will soon take up residence. Among them, are the carmaker Honda, who will open a new data center next spring, and Kubota Corporation, who plan to relocate their headquarters to Umekita in the months ahead. They join JR West and Japan Post, who already opened large scale facilities in Umekita this past summer. The full scheme is scheduled for a grand opening in early 2027. However, it is hoped that around 80-90% of the area will be complete and operational by the time the Osaka International Expo rolls around next April.
Osaka Singles Fall Victim to Dating Site Scheme
Osaka Police’s Special Fraud Investigation Team called for the city’s residents to be cautious this week. In two separate but similar cases, two lovelorn Osaka residents were defrauded out of a total of 263 million yen.
The first victim, a man in his 60s, struck up a relationship with a woman he knew simply as Emi. She convinced him she was an analyst with a major international trading firm. Having gained the victims confidence through sharing of photos and telephone conversations, she convinced him to send her around 150 million yen. This was under the pretense that she would invest the money so they could live together.
Of course this never happened, and the mysterious Emi soon disappeared along with the victim’s savings.
Police Unsure of Connection in Similar Schemes
Whilst all this was happening in May this year, a local government worker in her 50s suffered a similar fate. She lost 113 million yen in a crypto-currency scam, after her would be partner convinced her to invest. She met also met the perpetrator through an online dating app.
Investigators would not say if they think the two cases could be connected. However, they said that the brazenness of both fraud schemes highlights the need for vigilance.
Unfortunately, as long as there are lonely people out there, and scammers willing to take advantage of them, such schemes will only increase.
And Finally…
On a lighter note, some local train stations got an impressive makeover this week.
Osaka gaming giant Capcom partnered with Nara’s Kashihara City to help promote tourism in the area. Under this new scheme, a series of signs depicting characters from the Street Fighter fighting game series showed up at the city’s four Kintetsu railway stations.
The new signs proved a big hit with both visitors and locals alike. The Kashihara government confirmed the signs will remain in place for at least one year. A bronze statue of the fighting game series’ character “Ken” was also erected outside Kashihara Jingu Shrine. The statue has Ken giving his familiar “V for victory” pose.
It’s a big month for Capcom, with their latest Biohazard escape room also proving a big hit with thrill seekers at Universal Studios Japan during this Halloween season.
That’s all for now but be sure to check back again same time next week for another round of this week in Osaka!
