Introducing the Osaka's city planning of Osaka to the World

The construction of Nanko, or the South Port, was started in 1933 under a plan to build a commercial port by filling in a part of Osaka-port area. However, this land-reclamation work had to be suspended due to the outbreak of World War II and at that time about 60 hectares of the sea area had been reclaimed.
The Korean War commenced in 1950 and Japan was ushered into a period of economic development centering on the heavy and chemical industries. In the case of the City of Osaka, too, plans were drawn up to locate the heavy and chemical industries in an effort to promote the prosperous development of the industries and economy. Thus, in 1958, the city resumed the development of Nanko, with the purpose of creating a coastal industrial area.
If this construction work to create a coastal industrial area had proceeded as planned, a huge industrial zone was to have emerged in Nanko sector of the port of Osaka. However, as a result of the concentration of numerous industries and a population flow into the urban regions, various types of pollution problems began cropping up. The most serious was air pollution caused by the heavy and chemical industrial plants. Besides, reflecting the rapid economic growth, the volume of the harbor-related cargo increased sharply, with the result that the port of Osaka, too, came to face the need of improving its harbor facilities.
The City of Osaka, in 1967, revised its development policy for Nanko as follows :
(1) To develop the area as a strategic point of distribution that supports the extensive industrial and economic activities of the Osaka urban sphere and the vigorous consumption of the residents in the region.
(2) To locate the city-type industries in the existing city area together in groups, so as to promote the streamlining of the city functions and for redevelopment of the city.
(3) To develop residential areas with a finer environment. It is the "Nanko Port Town", a city-type new town, that has been constructed in accordance with the above-mentioned new development policy.
The construction of the "Nanko Port Town" was commenced in June 1975 and the acceptance of the first group of residents began in November 1977. At present (as of June 1984), the total population of this town is about 8,000 households, or 26,000 residents.