Shifting Preferences in the Kansai Tourism Landscape
The landscape of international tourism in Osaka is undergoing a substantial transformation. Cosmos Hotel Management, the operator of the Japanese aparthotel brand MIMARU, recently reported a 46 percent year-over-year increase in room nights from American guests across its five existing Osaka properties between 2024 and 2025. This surge significantly outpaced the brand’s overall growth rate of 29.7 percent across its entire national portfolio during the same period.
This spike highlights a broader behavioral shift among inbound travelers, particularly from North America. Visitors are increasingly moving away from brief, transient visits in favor of extended stays that require flexible, apartment-style lodging. Rather than treating Osaka merely as a secondary stop between Tokyo and Kyoto, American families and group travelers are setting up base in the city to explore the wider Kansai region. Consequently, Osaka’s share of total MIMARU room nights expanded from 11.7 percent to 13.1 percent in 2025.
Strategic Expansion in the Heart of the City
To capture this accelerating demand, MIMARU is expanding its local footprint with the opening of a new property, MIMARU Osaka Shinsaibashi CENTRAL, scheduled to welcome its first guests on September 1, 2026. This addition brings the brand’s nationwide portfolio to 28 properties, totaling 1,500 rooms.
The new Shinsaibashi location is explicitly designed to cater to the demographics driving this growth. The facility features 66 apartment-style units, with each room exceeding 40 square meters in size. By equipping every unit with a full kitchen, a dining area, and in-room laundry facilities, the brand is directly addressing the logistical needs of families and larger groups. Half of the rooms in this new property can accommodate up to six guests simultaneously, offering a spacious alternative to traditional Japanese business hotels, which typically lack the square footage required for group travel.
Broader Tourism Impact and Future Outlook
This specific expansion strategy aligns with the broader economic momentum of Osaka’s inbound tourism sector. According to the Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau, Osaka Prefecture welcomed a record-breaking 17.635 million international visitors in 2025, representing a 21 percent increase from the previous year. Furthermore, departure surveys indicated that North American travelers recorded an exceptionally high Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +78, sitting well above the market-wide average of +68. These visitors spent an average of 4.0 nights in Osaka out of their 9.6 total nights in Japan.
Looking ahead, the success of the aparthotel model in Osaka is likely to disrupt traditional hospitality strategies in the region. As international travelers continue to prioritize deeper local immersion, neighborhood exploration, and family-friendly amenities, operators of conventional business hotels and ryokans may face increased pressure to rethink their room density and service models. If current growth trajectories hold, apartment-style accommodations will become the default standard for overseas family travel in Kansai, cementing Osaka’s role as the definitive long-stay hub for international tourism in western Japan.
