Thanks to a favorable exchange rate, relaxed visa restrictions, more discount airlines flying into Kansai airport and an increase in the number of duty-free shops downtown, the number of foreign visitors to Osaka this year is expected to top 5 million for perhaps the first time.
From the luxury hotels and tony brand-name shops of the city's northern Umeda district to bars and restaurants of the southern Shinsaibashi and Namba districts, as well as in Tsuruhashi's Koreatown, the Osaka Castle area and the working-class Nishinari district, foreign visitors are arriving in droves. And they are spending money and injecting much-needed revenue into a city that until fairly recently was rarely if ever on the itinerary of most foreign tourists.
"We were in Tokyo, and did some shopping, but the prices in Osaka for things like pharmaceuticals and clothing are much cheaper. I especially liked the covered arcade that runs from central Osaka to Namba, because there are lots of interesting and very cheap stores," said Meiying Song, a tourist from Shanghai who was in the city earlier this month with a tour group.