February 24, 2012
What of the beauty of Rome, Florence, and Paris? It is magnificent, perfectly proportioned beauty, but
The beauty of Osaka created by the accumulated totality of human activity in the Osaka scene that unfolds before one’s eyes, encompassing everything from Nara to Minoh, Kobe, and the Yodo River…With a population of 8.7 million, equal to the entire nation of Sweden in both GDP and population, and consistently ranking among the world’s top twenty countries in GDP, the morning scenery, daytime landscape, and night view commanding a panoramic view of the whole of Osaka Prefecture were the finest in the world.

The above was the concluding passage of a text published on August 4, 2010. Many of the people who read “From Osaka To Osaka,” the advocacy advertisement also included in the book below, which, driven beyond endurance, I placed in the form of a newspaper insert approximately eight years ago in every Nikkei-subscribing household throughout Osaka Prefecture, as well as the people close to me who remained by my side for many years, know that it was I—not Osaka Mayor Hashimoto—who had long maintained that Osaka was a great city possessing an economy comparable in scale to an entire Western nation.

It goes without saying that the leading members of the Osaka Restoration Association had also read the advocacy advertisement into which I poured my entire being.

The photograph was taken shortly after 3:00 p.m. on February 18 from the rooftop of a building that is a masterpiece by Hiroshi Hara, whom I deeply admire.