History
Ōsaka Station opened on 11 May 1874 as one of the first stations in the Kansai region, with the start of railway service between Osaka and Kobe; the Tōkaidō Main Line was electrified through the station in 1934. Successive rebuildings replaced the original building in 1901, 1940, and 1979 (the North Building), and Acty Osaka rose on the south side in 1983. A second redevelopment in 2011 added the new North Gate Building. The current four-platform underground facility on the northwest side of the complex (the "Umekita" platforms) opened for service on 18 March 2023, serving as the western terminus of the Osaka Higashi Line and accommodating Haruka and Kuroshio limited expresses. Station numbering — JR-A47, JR-G47, and JR-O11 — was assigned in March 2018.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
World War II air raids levelled the blocks immediately in front of Ōsaka Station, and the cleared land became one of the country's largest postwar black markets, an atmosphere that lingered until the 1970s redevelopment.