Photo/Illutration Osaka Castle Park offers a night walk event called “Sakuya Lumina.” (Yuka Kanemoto)

OSAKA--While Osaka has long been known among Japanese for its buzzing nightlife, it turns out that most tourists from overseas hit the hay early, missing out on the after-dark fun.

The Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau surveyed visitors from overseas to Osaka Prefecture in 2017 using smartphone location data, and the result came as a shock.

Many of them went back to their hotels around 10 p.m., much earlier than their Japanese counterparts.

"Nighttime spending (among visitors) in Osaka is still developing compared to other cities popular with tourists," said Hiroshi Mizohata, president of the bureau.

As part of efforts to close the gap, the bureau on Nov. 12 officially launched a council to create and promote nighttime tourist attractions in the city’s bustling Dotonbori quarter.

The Dotonbori Store Association, major travel agency JTB Corp. and eight other companies joined the initiative as the council’s founding members.

Foreign visitors flock to Dotonbori, a major sightseeing area in Osaka’s Minami district famous for shops that sell “takoyaki,” a local delicacy, and other foods. However, business owners and tourism officials share a concern that the area has not been drawing as many tourists as possible at night.

First, the council developed smartphone app Tonbori Apuri, which provides information about restaurants and nightclubs and offers discount coupons.

The council also set up an electronic signboard to display information about places where visitors can have fun in multiple languages on the B1 level of the Nakaza Cui-daore Building, which is famous for the Cui-daore Taro doll, an iconic symbol of Dotonbori.

The council plans to introduce more facilities and add more information.

"We need to send a message about nighttime attractions, as if the city were a 'night park', and establish a system for visitors to get to locations safely," said Takehiko Utagawa, a JTB executive officer.

In the global tourism industry, the "nighttime economy" is considered an important factor for increasing consumption among visitors. Cities such as London and New York have produced economic effects worth trillions of yen through nighttime entertainment such as live concerts and shows, while Japan has joined the party, so to speak, late.

The launch of the council is part of recent progress in promoting nighttime attractions throughout the city.

The bureau in February started operating a website called Osaka Night Out, featuring restaurants and bars that visitors can enjoy after 9 p.m. without worrying about being "ripped off."

Also, Osaka Castle Park started an event called Sakuya Lumina in December last year, inviting visitors to take an “enchanted night walk” and enjoy interactive digital art, with the castle also lit up. About half of the visitors so far are from abroad, the park said.

Cool Japan Park Osaka, a cultural facility that opened in February, offers entertainment shows that feature elements of kabuki and Japanese films, such as plays without dialogue, aimed at those who are unable to understand Japanese.

"There are many foreign visitors who move on right away after seeing the Osaka Castle tower," said Yoshito Toda, president of the facility’s operator Cool Japan Park Osaka Co. “We want to create an environment where they can spend a full day having fun.”