Dog Friendly City Guide: Osaka, Japan

Osaka is a city that likes to eat, talk and stay out late, and a dog fits into it better than you might expect. Its rivers and canals give it long, flat walks along the water, its big parks open up between the office towers, and the city's own tourism bureau now publishes a guide to sightseeing with a pet, with walking routes, dog runs and terrace tables picked out across town. The rules here are clear and widely kept: your dog stays on a lead, is carried where the crowds are thick, and sits outside rather than in. Keep to that and Osaka is an easy, cheerful city to share with a dog.

Getting There With a Dog

Japan has some of the strictest entry rules for dogs anywhere, and they take months, not weeks. The Animal Quarantine Service sets them out on its page for importing dogs from non-designated regions, which covers the United States, the United Kingdom and most of Europe. Your dog needs an ISO microchip first, then two rabies vaccinations at least 30 days apart, then a blood test for rabies antibodies at a designated laboratory showing at least 0.5 IU/ml. Only after that blood is drawn does the clock start: your dog must arrive at least 180 days later. You must also notify the quarantine office at your port of entry at least 40 days before you land, and late notices are generally not accepted. A dog that arrives short of the 180 days is held in a quarantine facility for the days still owed.

Kansai International Airport and Osaka Itami are both on the list of airports where a dog may enter, and Kansai has its own detention branch. From the United States, the USDA's pet travel page for Japan explains the export health certificate your accredited vet prepares and the USDA endorses; the paper copy travels with your dog. Plan the flight as carefully as the paperwork.

Inside the city, trains are the way around. The tourism bureau's notes on travelling with a pet explain that on Osaka Metro your dog travels in a closed container no longer than two metres on any side, with the three sides adding up to no more than 2.5 metres and the whole weighing no more than 30 kilograms, and that you should cover the container with a cloth. JR asks for an approved container and a hand luggage ticket, and Hankyu allows a container of up to 120 centimetres in total size and ten kilograms with the dog inside. In practice, a small dog in a carrier moves around Osaka easily, and a large one is best kept to the parks and terraces you can reach on foot from your hotel.

Where to Stay

OMO7 Osaka by Hoshino Resorts holds a B rank and is the most dog minded hotel we have assessed in the city. Your dog may join you in the bar, the restaurant and the lounge, so you eat and drink together rather than in turns, and there is a garden and a dedicated dog space on site. The room comes with a dog bed and food and water bowls, with treats laid on, and your dog may stay in the room on its own while you go out. The fee is 5,093 yen a night with no deposit taken up front, up to two dogs may share a room, and dogs of up to 44 lb are accepted. Only some rooms take dogs, so book early. The hotel stands directly opposite Shin-Imamiya station, a few minutes' walk from the old neighbourhood of Shinsekai, and the tourism bureau notes that your dog should be on a lead at check in.

If you land late at Kansai, OMO Kansai Airport holds a D rank. It welcomes dogs in its bar, restaurant, terrace and lounge, provides a bed and bowls, takes up to two dogs of up to 44 lb, and charges 5,093 yen.

Eat and Drink

Japanese restaurants rarely let a dog inside, so the places to know are the terraces and the few cafés built around dogs. GARB weeks stands inside Nakanoshima Park, between the two rivers, and keeps a notice on its own site for guests who come with a dog. The tourism bureau's Nakanoshima and Shinsaibashi walking course says it takes up to two small dogs per group on its terrace and asks you to bring a mat if your dog sits on a seat. It cooks its pizza in a wood-fired oven, with pasta and grilled meat beside it, serves lunch and dinner until ten, and it is the natural stop on a walk along the river.

On the same course, the bureau lists &ISLAND at Nakanoshima, a café on a moored barge whose terrace welcomes dogs, with a warning that the deck can sway in a strong wind. Down in Shinsekai, under the Tsutenkaku tower, the bureau's Tennoji course says that Kushikatsu Yokozuna, one of the district's famous fried skewer houses, seats dogs on its terrace, on a lead because the street is busy. Closed on Tuesdays, it makes an easy dinner from OMO7.

For a proper dog café, Anniversary in Oyodo-minami, in Kita ward, makes celebration cakes and runs a café and bar with live music nights, and its own site says plainly that pets are welcome. Out on the island of Maishima, Dog Walking is a large private dog run with a dog kindergarten and its own café, the Dog Shokudo, so you can eat while your dog plays. And our venue data lists GO to BAKERY in Hirano, a bakery in an old factory with an eat-in space, as welcoming dogs.

Walks and Parks

The tourism bureau's list of parks and dog runs is the place to start, and its first choice is Osaka Castle Park. The bureau calls the castle grounds a favourite for dog walks: a full circuit of the park runs about four kilometres and takes around an hour, past the moats and the great stone walls. Dogs may not go inside the castle keep, so take turns if you want to see the museum.

Nakanoshima Park runs along the eastern tip of the island between the Dojima and Tosabori rivers, past the red brick Central Public Hall and the rose garden. It is busy with dogs, and the bureau asks you to keep the lead short when you pass others. Further west, Utsubo Park is a long green strip of lawns, trees and roses where, the bureau says, many owners walk their dogs; the rose beds have no fences, so keep your dog clear of the thorns.

For space to run, go east to Tsurumi Ryokuchi, the vast park laid out for the International Garden and Greenery Exposition, where Partner Dog Town runs a dog run alongside a rescue dog adoption centre, open from ten until five and closed on Tuesdays and Fridays. In the south, the Osaka Prefecture park office runs a dog run in Suminoe Park, but it asks every dog to be registered first, with a rabies certificate and a vaccination certificate from the past year and a small fee, so it suits a longer stay. Nagai Park and Sumiyoshi Park are both on the bureau's list for ordinary walks on the lead.

A Day Out

Start at Osaka Castle early, before the tour groups, and walk the four kilometre loop around the moats. Take a taxi or carry your dog west to Nakanoshima, walk the riverside lawns past the rose garden, and stop for lunch on the terrace at GARB weeks. In the afternoon, carry on to Utsubo Park for a slow stroll under the trees, then head south to Shinsekai for skewers on the terrace at Yokozuna, and back to OMO7 for a drink in the bar with your dog beside you.

Good to Know

The Osaka Prefectural Government reminds owners on its dog walking manners page that letting a dog run loose is banned by prefectural ordinance, so keep the lead on everywhere outside a fenced dog run. Carry bags and a bottle of water for your dog, as the bureau advises, and pick a small dog up in crowded streets and in shrine grounds, as it also suggests. Osaka summers are hot and humid and the pavements hold the heat, so in summer walk early in the morning and after dark.