The is a major rapid transit system in the

Osaka Metropolitan Area is a metropolitan region in the Kansai region of Japan encompassing the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka in Osaka Prefecture and Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture. The entire region has a population () of 19,302, ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, operated by the Osaka Metro Company, Ltd. It serves the city of

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

and the adjacent municipalities of Higashiosaka, Kadoma,

Moriguchi is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 142,655 in 73353 households and a population density of 11,000 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Moriguchi borders the northea ...

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and inclu ...

Suita is a city located in northern Osaka Prefecture, Japan. As of October 1, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 378,322 and a population density of 9,880 persons per km². The total area is 36.11 km². The city was founded on April 1, ...

, and Yao. Osaka Metro forms an integral part of the extensive mass transit system of Greater Osaka (part of the

Kansai The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...

region), having 123 out of the 1,108 rail stations (2007) in the

Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto is a metropolitan region in the Kansai region of Japan encompassing the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka in Osaka Prefecture and Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture. The entire region has a population () of 19,302,746 ...

region. In 2010, the greater Osaka region had 13 million rail passengers daily (see Transport in Keihanshin) of which the Osaka Municipal Subway (as it was then known) accounted for 2.29 million. Osaka Metro is the only subway system in Japan to be legally classified as a

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

way, whereas all other subway systems in Japan are legally classified as

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

s. Despite this, it has characteristics typical of a full-fledged metro system.

Overview

The network's first service, the

Midōsuji Line The is a rapid transit line in Osaka, Japan, operated by Osaka Metro. Constructed under Midōsuji, a major north-south street, it is the oldest line in the Osaka subway system and the second oldest in Japan, following the Tokyo Metro Ginza L ...

from to , opened in 1933. As a north–south trunk route, it is the oldest and busiest line in the whole network. Both it and the main east–west route, the Chūō Line, were later extended to the north and east, respectively. These extensions are owned by other railway companies, but both Osaka Metro and these private operators run their own set of trains through between the two sections. All but one of the remaining lines of the network, including the

Yotsubashi Line The is an underground rapid transit line in Osaka, Japan, operated by Osaka Metro. The line connects Umeda, Hommachi, Yotsubashi, Namba, Daikokuchō and Suminoe, and runs parallel to the Midōsuji Line from Daikokuchō to Nishi-Umeda. Its offic ...

Tanimachi Line The is a rapid transit line of Osaka Metro, running from Dainichi Station in Moriguchi to Yaominami Station in Yao through Osaka. Its official name is , while the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau refers to it as , and in MLIT publicat ...

, and

Sennichimae Line is an underground rapid transit line in Osaka, Japan. It is one of the lines of Osaka Metro. It links the northwestern district of Fukushima-ku and the southeastern district of Ikuno-ku with the central commercial and entertainment distric ...

, are completely independent lines with no through services. The lone exception is the

Sakaisuji Line The is an underground rapid transit line in Osaka, Japan, operated by Osaka Metro. Its official name is , and in MLIT publications, it is written as . The Sakaisuji Line is unique in the Osaka Metro system in that despite being regulated as ...

, which operates through trains to existing Hankyu Railway lines and is the only line to operate through services to existing railway lines that are not isolated from the

national rail network In United States railroading, the term national rail network, sometimes termed "U.S. rail network", refers to the entire network of interconnected standard gauge rail lines in North America. It does not include most subway or light rail lines. Fe ...

(which is the case with the Midōsuji and Chūō Lines). Nearly all stations have a

letter number combination Buzz number is a term applied to the large letter and number combination applied to United States Air Force military aircraft in the years immediately after World War II, through the early 1960s. This moniker evolved from aircrew speculation tha ...

, the letter identifying the line served by the station and the number indicating the relative location of the station on the line. For example, Higobashi Station on the Yotsubashi Line is also known as Y12. This combination is heard in bilingual Japanese-English automated next-station announcements on board all trains, which also provide information on local businesses near the station. Only Hankyu stations served by the Sakaisuji Line do not follow this convention.

Management

The network is operated by a municipally owned stock company trading as the Osaka Metro Company, Ltd. The Osaka Metro Co. is the direct legal successor to the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau, which operated the subway as ; under the Bureau's management, the subway was the oldest publicly operated subway network in Japan, having begun operations in 1933. A proposal to corporatize the Osaka subway was sent to the city government in February 2013 and was given final approval in 2017. The rationale behind corporatization is that it would bring private investors to Osaka and could help revive Osaka's economy. The Osaka Metro Co. was incorporated on June 1, 2017, and took over operations on April 1, 2018. The Osaka Metro Co. also operates all city buses in Osaka, through its majority-owned subsidiary, the Osaka City Bus Corporation.

Branding

Osaka Metro stations are denoted by the Osaka Metro Co.'s corporate logo, a white-on-dark-blue icon placed at ground-level entrances, depicting an "M" (for "Metro") based on a coiled ribbon, which would form an "O" (for "Osaka") when viewed from the side, with the "Osaka Metro"

wordmark __notoc__ A wordmark, word mark, or logotype, is usually a distinct text-only typographic treatment of the name of a company, institution, or product name used for purposes of identification and branding. Examples can be found in the graphic iden ...

set in the Gotham typeface. "Osaka Metro" (in Latin characters) is the official branding in Japanese, and is always represented as such in official media. (News outlets have been seen to use 大阪メトロ, presumably to better flow with article text.) Individual lines are represented by a public-facing name (e.g. “Midōsuji Line” for Line No. 1) and a specific color, as well as a single Latin letter, which is paired with a different number at each station for easy identification (see below). Icons for each line (featured in station wayfinding signage) are represented by a solid

roundel A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of dif ...

in the line color, superimposed with the line's letter-designation in the Parisine typeface. An older branding (also used on the

network run by the city until 1969) is the "Mio-Den" mark, which depicts an old-fashioned , the logo for

City, over the

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

for , short for . This mark is still present on newer trainsets and staff uniforms as the mark is Osaka Metro's corporate emblem, as well as a connection to the subway network's roots. When it was run by the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau, the subway used a logo known as the symbol, which is a katakana for superimposed over a circular capital “O” for “Osaka” (see infobox, above). This remains on many trainsets and at stations, but is slated for replacement with the Osaka Metro logo as the changeover progresses.

Lines

Currently, there are eight lines, operating on and serving 123 stations; there is also a -long, 10-station automated people mover line known as the "New Tram". ;Table notes

Planned line and extensions

In addition, there are five line extensions and one new line that are planned. However, on August 28, 2014, the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau met about creating the extensions of the later five of the six lines listed below, and have stated considering the current cost of the new extensions (and the possibly of privatization at the time), the government has also considered using light rail transit or

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

instead. Osaka Metro is now experimenting with bus rapid transit on the route of the Imazatosuji Line extension, with “Imazato Liner” service between Imazato and Yuzato-Rokuchōme slated to begin in April 2019. With Osaka being the host of

Expo 2025 is an upcoming World Expo organised and sanctioned by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), which will be held in Osaka, Japan. It will take place for six months during 2025, opening 13 April 2025 and closing 13 October 2025. This wil ...

, there are also plans to extend the Chuo Line northwest onto Yumeshima (the event's planned site), with a terminus on Sakura-jima north of

Universal Studios Japan is a theme park located in Osaka, Japan. Opened on March 31, 2001, it is one of six Universal Studios theme parks worldwide and was the first to open outside the United States. The park is owned and operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of ...

. Provisions were put in place for such an extension when the existing road tunnel between Cosmosquare and Yumeshima was built, but the current state of the artificial island (with only industrial facilities and a lone convenience store for workers) meant it would have been unlikely to proceed had Osaka lost its bid.

Technology and rolling stock

Osaka Municipal Subway

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...

use two types of

propulsion systems Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...

. The vast majority of lines use trains with conventional

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate f ...

s, but the two newest lines, the

Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line The is an underground rapid transit system in Osaka, Japan, operated by Osaka Metro. It was the first linear motor rapid transit line constructed in Japan (and the first outside North America, predated only by the Intermediate Capacity Transi ...

and Imazatosuji Line, use

linear motor A linear motor is an electric motor that has had its stator and rotor "unrolled", thus, instead of producing a torque (rotation), it produces a linear force along its length. However, linear motors are not necessarily straight. Characteristica ...

-powered trains, which allow them to use smaller trains and tunnels, reducing construction costs. These two lines have half-height

automatic platform gates Platform screen doors (PSDs), also known as platform edge doors (PEDs), are used at some train, rapid transit and people mover stations to separate the Railway platform, platform from train tracks, as well as on some bus rapid transit, tram and ...

installed at all station platforms, as does the Sennichimae Line and Midosuji Line (completed in 2022). Also, unlike other rapid transit networks in Japan, most Osaka subway lines use a

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...

electrification system for trains. Only three lines use

overhead catenary An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipm ...

: the Sakaisuji Line, to accommodate through services on Hankyu trackage; and the linear-motor Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi and Imazatosuji Lines. Also unusually, all lines use

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in E ...

; there are no

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

sections of track due to the network being almost entirely self-enclosed.

Conventional motored

* 10 series:

ithdraw since July 2022* 20 series: Chūō Line * 21 series (" New 20 series"):

* 22 series ("New 20 series"):

* 23 series ("New 20 series"):

* 24 series ("New 20 series"): Chūō Line (A variant of the 24 series is used on the Chūō Line in Osaka Port Transport System livery.) * 25 series ("New 20 series"):

* 66 series:

* 30000 series:

, Chūō Line (30000A series)

Linear motored

* 70 series:

* 80 series: Imazatosuji Line

Fares

Osaka Metro charges five types of fares for single rides, based on the distance traveled in each journey. Some discount fares exist.

Incidents

On April 8, 1970, a gas explosion occurred during the construction of the

at Tenjimbashisuji Rokuchōme Station, killing 79 people and injuring 420. The gas leaked out from a detached joint and filled the tunnel and exploded, creating a fire column over tall and destroying 495 houses and buildings.

Network Map

References

External links

Osaka Metro official site (English)

Osaka Metro route map (PDF)
{{Rapid transit in Asia * Underground rapid transit in Japan 750 V DC railway electrification 1500 V DC railway electrification