Located on the main island of Honshu, essentially in the center of Japan, Osaka is the second most populous city in the nation after Tokyo. The city has been a major hub for domestic and international trade, making it one of the most prosperous commercial centers in the country. Long known as “the kitchen of Japan,” Osaka is a thriving business meeting destination which has an abundance of world-class MICE facilities.
The meetings and events industry in Osaka is supported by impressive infrastructure facilities, including the Port of Osaka and Kansai International Airport, which also facilitates Osaka to function as Western Japan’s logistics hub. Kansai International Airport, the third busiest airport in the country by passengers, is the top-tier airport hub with direct flights to and from all over the world.
Additionally, Osaka features Japan’s largest international exhibition hall – Intex Osaka – offering about 70,000 square meters of exhibition space, consisting of nine exhibition halls ranging from 4,748 square meters to 10,535 square meters. The center has several other meeting spaces suitable for hosting seminars, conferences and other kinds of gatherings. In the coming year, the venue is set to host the first ever G20 Summit in Japan, a premier forum for international economic cooperation drawing delegates from France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and the European Union. This two-day summit meeting will happen on June 28 & 29, 2019.
Another grand facility that the city renders to host some of the best events in the country is the Osaka International Convention Center. Also known as the Grand Cube Osaka, the center provides more than 6,000 square meters of meeting space across 28 meeting rooms. The venue is frequently picked to host renowned international conferences like The International Conference on Multiscale Material Modeling (MMM 2018), the 119th Annual Congress of Japan Surgical Society, and many more.
Osaka, as the cultural and economic center of Japan, has a lot to contribute towards the country’s tourism industry. With easy access to several World Heritage sites and numerous other tourist-friendly places like Osaka-jo Castle, Dotombori, Universal Studios Japan and more, Osaka is the city where meetings and event organizers love to welcome their delegates from overseas. Not to forget about the gastronomical treasures that the city offers. Osaka’s scrumptious culinary delights are so abundant that it is known as a kuidaore-no-machi, which literally translates to ‘a town where you can eat until you drop’.
Want to know more about Osaka’s MICE landscape? Visit Cvent’s city guide to Osaka.
