In this post, we take a look at the most popular places for foreigners to live in Osaka.
The data comes from the Osaka Prefectural Government.
1. How many foreigners live in Osaka?
In 2016, there were 217,656 foreign nationals (from 162 countries) living in Osaka prefecture, which consists of the city of Osaka, as well as 32 other cities, and ten towns and villages.
In 2016, there were 2,382,822 registered foreigners living in Japan, so about 9.1% of the foreigners in Japan live in Osaka prefecture.
How big is the foreigner population of Osaka compared to the total resident population? Well, Osaka prefecture has a total population of about 8.8 million. This means that resident foreigners comprise about 2.47% of the total. By comparison, in March 2018, the total population of Tokyo was 13,754,043. Of that number, 3.79% or 521,500 were registered foreign residents.
2. What nationalities are most represented in the population of foreigners living in Osaka?
Of the 162 different nationalities represented in the foreigner population of Osaka prefecture, seven countries account for about 90% of the total: South Korea (47.8%), China (25.8%), Viet Nam (6.6%), the Philippines (3.4%), Taiwan (2.7%), North Korea (2.4%), and the United States (1.3%).
Please see the chart below for the Top 20 most represented nationalities in the foreigner population of Osaka.
3. How many foreigners live in Osaka City itself?
The majority of foreigners (58.3%) live in the city of Osaka, itself. The smallest percentage (0.7%) live in the prefecture’s towns and villages.
4. What are the most popular wards for foreigners living in Osaka City?
The city of Osaka is divided into 24 wards.
Ikuno Ward is home to more than a fifth of all resident foreigners of Osaka City. Following in the top five are: Hirano, Nishinari, Chuo, and Naniwa, each with about 6% of the foreigner population.
Wikipedia provides some insight on the why Ikuno Ward has such a high percentage of the foreigner population: “The Tsuruhashi area of Ikuno-ku is well known for the large number of Koreans, particularly Korean-Japanese citizens living there, as well as for its large number of yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurants.”
Please see the chart below for a breakdown of the resident foreigner population of Osaka by ward:
5. What are the most popular cities other than Osaka and Sakai?
As covered in Question 3. above, the majority of foreigners in Osaka Prefecture live in Osaka City and Sakai. Other than these cities, here are the Top 5 cities by resident foreigner population: Higashi Osaka, Yao, Toyonaka, Suita, and Hirakata.
Please see the chart below for a breakdown:
You may also be interested in: Where in Tokyo do most foreigners live? and What are the most popular places for foreigners to live in Japan?
Top Photo: Yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurants in Ikuno Ward, Osaka