Osaka striving to become the new gateway to Japan
In conjunction with the second anniversary of its presence in Indonesia, Japan Asia Airways, a private Japanese airline and a subsidiary of Japan Airlines, recently invited four Indonesian journalists to visit Osaka and Kyoto. Imanuddin of The Jakarta Post filed this report.
OSAKA (JP): Tokyo is Japan's largest city, with more than one- tenth of the country's population. Over half of Japan's major corporations and banks have their headquarters in Tokyo. It has more than 200 colleges and universities, which educate more than half the country's students.
It is no wonder that Tokyo has become the main gateway to Japan.
However, this role is likely to change given the growing use of Osaka and the operation of Kansai International Airport. Constructed two years ago on 551 hectares of reclaimed island, it is the second busiest airport in Japan after Narita airport in Tokyo.
The director of Kansai International Airport's international affairs department, Hiroshi Tanaka, said that the airport is currently used for domestic flights to 29 cities and international flights to 72 cities in 33 countries, including Indonesia. Accumulatively, there are 524 international flights and 202 domestic flights served by Kansai airport every week, he said.
"We expect that Osaka, with its Kansai Airport, will someday become the new gateway to Japan," Tanaka said.
Tanaka, a former commercial airplane pilot, said that in order to meet the target, the airport authority is now planning to expand the capacity of the airport by adding two runways. The current runway is 3.5 kilometers long, while the two additional runways are planned to be 4 km and 3.5 km in length.
"Kansai Airport will be able to serve 300,000 flights per year upon the completion of the two additional runways. Currently, we can serve 160,000 flights per year," he said.
Tanaka's prediction is reminiscent of the city's role a long time ago, when the township of Naniwa, an important port in the 8th century, functioned as the gateway to the ancient capital of Nara and Kyoto. It was also a point of departure for ports in eastern and western Japan. Sakai, now a southern suburb of Osaka, was another early precursor of the present metropolis.
More than 40 airlines use Kansai Airport's services, including privately-owned Japan Asia Airways (JAA). JAA, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines Co. Ltd., has a daily Osaka-Jakarta route, via Denpasar, and also flies direct from Osaka to Jakarta.
The Japanese top the list of foreigners visiting Indonesia. Last year the number of Japanese visiting Indonesia was 486,278. More than 420,000 traveled by air, compared to a total of about 2.7 million foreign visitors who traveled by air to Indonesia.
JAA Director and Vice President of Western Japan Ryokichi Takumi said the company would keep on promoting Bali among the Japanese. The company is also considering serving other cities and tourist destinations such as Yogyakarta and Central Java.
Rich history
Osaka is blessed with many historical sites, including Japan's first capital, Naniwa no Miya, and a rich history from ancient to modern times.
Along with the traditional performing arts, festivals, and delicious foods that have been nurtured throughout history, commerce and industry have prospered in the city.
Giant multinational companies, like Matshusita General Electric, Co., Sharp Electronic, Co. and the Sumitomo group of companies have their headquarters in Osaka. Japanese giant trading companies like Marubeni and Itochu and big commercial banks like Daiwa, Sumitomo and Sanwa, or Japanese biggest Insurance company, the Nippon Life, also have offices in the city.
Osaka has the world's largest aquarium, equipped with high- tech equipment, and underground shopping malls.
The venue for multinational meetings is no longer the monopoly of metropolitan cities like Tokyo. The third summit of the 18- member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group was held in Osaka in November last year.
In cost-of-living terms, especially for expatriates working in Japan, Osaka is less expensive than Tokyo. However, a recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, part of the London- based Economist group, ranked Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe among the most expensive cities in the world for expatriates to live in.
The cities were graded on the basis of a comparative cost-of- living index against New York, which was rated 100 and was the 36th most expensive city.
Tokyo was given an index of 179, while Osaka-Kobe, considered one metropolis because of their proximity, was rated 172.
It is easy for visitors to reach other cities through Osaka. Less than one-hour drive from Osaka is Kyoto, the only city in Japan which still preserves much of its historical charm and beauty in its many temples and shrines, its parks and gardens, and its old wooden houses with their gray tile roofs.
During World War II, unlike other large Japanese cities, Kyoto was spared from bombing attacks, which accounts for the preservation of much of its ancient character.
Among the secular monuments in Kyoto, there are three memorials mentioned as the most outstanding -- the Imperial Palace, the Nijo Castle, which was erected early in the early 17th century for Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa military dynasty, and the Katsura Imperial Villa, built also in the 17th century and regarded as the masterpiece of Japanese domestic architecture.
The other unique monuments are the Kinkaku-Ji Temple, a three- story temple whose second and third floors are covered with gold- leaf on Japanese lacquer; and the Ryoanji Temple, a simple rock garden consisting only of white sand and 15 rocks, whose simple beauty can inspire philosophical meditation, especially for those who practice Zen Buddhism.