Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, Public aquarium in Tempozan Harbor Village, Japan
The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is a marine facility in the Tempozan Harbor Village district and houses hundreds of animal species from the Pacific across eight floors. Each section is dedicated to a particular geographic part of the Pacific basin and displays life in different habitats.
Planned from 1988 as the centrepiece of the Tempozan Harbor Village redevelopment of Osaka Port, the aquarium opened on 20 July 1990 and was then the largest public aquarium in the world. It drew 5.6 million visitors in its first year, a Japanese record at the time. In 2008 it became the first aquarium to keep and display the largetooth sawfish, and in 2024 it marked 85 million cumulative visitors.
The circular spiral ramp descends through several levels and lets visitors feel as though they are diving into the sea themselves. This downward walkway brings guests eye to eye with animals from different depths.
The nearest subway station is Osakako on the Chuo Line and sits about five walking minutes from the entrance. Opening hours and admission fees change according to season, so checking ahead before a visit helps.
The Pacific Ocean tank holds 5,400 cubic metres of water behind roughly 100 acrylic panels made by Mitsubishi Rayon, Nippon, Sumitomo Chemical and Reynolds of the United States. In 1990 Kaiyukan was the only aquarium in the world keeping whale sharks; it later became the second anywhere to hold a manta ray, in 1994.
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