MIMARU Adds Shinsaibashi Base as U.S. Guest Nights Climb in Osaka

The 66-room apartment hotel opens on Sept. 1 after the brand recorded a 46% rise in American stays at its Osaka properties

MIMARU Encourages Longer Osaka Stays With a 66-Room Shinsaibashi Base

(NEWS) OSAKA, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, 2026-Aug-31 — /Travel PR News/ — MIMARU is adding another family-focused base in central Osaka as its own booking data points to faster growth from American guests in the city than across the apartment-hotel brand as a whole.

MIMARU Osaka Shinsaibashi CENTRAL is scheduled to welcome its first guests on Sept. 1, 2026. The 66-room property will sit a two-minute walk from Shinsaibashi Station, placing visitors near the shopping and entertainment districts of Shinsaibashi, Amerikamura and Dotonbori while retaining direct subway access to other parts of the city.

The opening is significant not simply because it expands the brand’s Osaka inventory. Internal figures supplied by MIMARU show that room nights booked by American guests across its five existing Osaka hotels increased 46.0% between 2024 and 2025. That compares with growth of 29.7% across MIMARU’s full portfolio over the same period. Osaka’s share of all MIMARU room nights consequently rose from 11.7% to 13.1%.

Those figures are company data rather than a measure of the wider hotel market, but they support MIMARU’s view that more U.S. visitors are treating Osaka as a substantial part of a Japan itinerary instead of a short stop between Tokyo and Kyoto.

More space for families and groups in Shinsaibashi

The new property is designed around the needs of travelers sharing a room. All accommodations will measure more than 40 square meters and include a furnished kitchen, dining area and washer-dryer. Half of the rooms will accommodate as many as six guests, a configuration aimed at multigenerational families and groups of friends who would otherwise need several conventional hotel rooms.

A new two-bunk-bed apartment will offer four individual sleeping spaces, two washbasins and two showers. Larger one- and two-bedroom layouts will provide separate living and sleeping areas for groups of up to six. The practical additions matter on longer, multi-city trips, when access to cooking and laundry facilities can make it easier for a group to settle into one neighborhood rather than move frequently.

According to Cosmos Hotel Management Co., Ltd., which operates MIMARU, the Shinsaibashi opening will bring the brand to 28 properties and approximately 1,500 rooms across Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. The company positions the apartment-hotel format primarily for families and groups, supported by multilingual staff. It says team members across the brand come from 39 countries and regions.

Osaka’s visitor growth strengthens the case for a longer stay

The hotel arrives after a record year for inbound tourism in the prefecture. Final estimates published by the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau put international visitor arrivals at 17.635 million in 2025, an increase of 21% from the previous year. Visitors from the United States accounted for an estimated 1.477 million, up 34%.

The bureau’s FY2025 survey of departing international passengers at Kansai International Airport found that North American respondents spent an average of 9.6 nights in Japan, including 4.0 nights in Osaka. Satisfaction among those travelers was recorded at 97.8%, with a Net Promoter Score of +78, compared with all-market results of 97.1% and +68. The survey covered 4,381 respondents across four fieldwork periods between May 2025 and March 2026, with results weighted to reflect departure patterns.

For travelers, a four-night Osaka stay creates room to look beyond the city’s most photographed areas. Local shopping streets, neighborhood restaurants and small temples can sit alongside headline attractions, while the city also works as a base for day trips across the wider Kansai region. MIMARU staff, for example, may point guests toward Koka in neighboring Shiga Prefecture for its ninja residences, museums and associated heritage; the journey takes roughly two hours from central Osaka when local transfers are included.

Food remains one of Osaka’s strongest draws, but a longer visit allows travelers to move beyond a checklist of famous dishes. Neighborhood izakaya, craft-beer venues, covered markets and special-occasion dining reveal different layers of the city, while a baseball game can introduce visitors to Kansai’s distinctive supporter culture.

Positioning Osaka as Tokyo’s complement

MIMARU is not suggesting that American visitors choose Osaka instead of Tokyo. Its pitch is that the contrast between the two cities can make a first or repeat trip more complete, especially for families able to stay together in apartment-style accommodation.

“For guests from the United States, Tokyo is often an important starting point for a trip to Japan. But extending the journey to Osaka can make their impression of Japan even richer,” said Mao Mochizuki, international public relations representative at Cosmos Hotel Management. “Just beyond its lively streets, Osaka offers experiences that bring visitors closer to everyday local life. We hope MIMARU can be a base for families and friends to explore a side of Japan different from Tokyo.”

The Shinsaibashi location brings that strategy into a district where visitors can balance major sights with everyday city life. For MIMARU, the test will be whether the sharp rise recorded in its American guest nights continues as Osaka converts record visitor numbers into longer stays. For travelers, the opening adds another practical option for making the city more than a brief detour on the well-traveled Tokyo–Kyoto route.