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The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (海遊館, Kaiyūkan, known as the Kaiyukan) is an aquarium located in the ward of Minato in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, near Osaka Bay. When it first opened, it was the largest public aquarium in the world,[7] and is a member of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA).

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

The Kaiyukan Aquarium
Date opened	May 1990 [1][2]
Location	Osaka, Japan
Coordinates	34°39′16.1″N 135°25′44.0″E
Land area	26,570 m2 (286,000 sq ft)[3]
No. of animals	29,000 [4]
No. of species	420 [4]
Volume of largest tank	5,400,000 litres (1,427,000 US gal) [5]
Total volume of tanks	11,000,000 litres (2,906,000 US gal) [5]
Annual visitors	2.5 million+
Memberships	JAZA[6]
Major exhibits	The Pacific Ocean tank etc.
Management	kaiyukan company
Public transit access	Chūō Line at Osakako (Osaka Metro)
Website	www.kaiyukan.com/language/eng/

The aquarium is about a five-minute walk from Osakako Station on the Osaka Municipal Subway Chūō Line, and is next to the Tempozan Ferris Wheel.[7]

History

In 1988, with the aim of redeveloping the Osaka Bay Area, the Kaiyukan and Tempozan Marketplace were to be built following the success stories of aquariums and commercial facilities overseas.[2] The aquarium was named "Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan" by the general public and opened in 1990.[2] The number of visitors reached 1 million on the 40 days of the opening and 2 million on the 101 days, The final number of visitors during the year reached 5.6 million, surpassing the national record held at that time Tokyo Sea Life Park and being the fastest record in Japan.[8][2]

The number of visitors reached 50 million on February 26, 2008. Achievement in 6317 days (about 18 years) is the fastest among aquariums in Japan, and about 60% of the visitors are repeaters. In 2014, the total number of visitors exceeded 65 million.[9] In 2017, the number of visitors reached 75 million, making it the most visited aquarium in Japan.[9]

Exhibits

Visitors will go up to the eighth floor on the escalator and go down to appreciate it. Therefore, there are some fishtanks that can be viewed multiple times, such as on the water and underwater.

The walk-through aquarium displays marine life in several habitats comprising 27 tanks in 16 main exhibits with a total volume of 10,941 tons of water. The habitats are from the Ring of Fire area of the Pacific Ocean. The largest tank is 9 metres (30 ft) deep and holds 5,400 cubic metres (190,699 cu ft) of water and a variety of fish including Reef manta ray and two whale sharks.[5]

The tanks used in the aquarium are made of 314 tonnes (346 tons) of acrylic glass. The largest single pane measures six meters by five meters by thirty centimeters and weighs roughly 10 tons. At the thicknesses used, regular glass would be unwieldy and would not have the desired transparency.

The most popular animals on display are the whale sharks. In 1990, the Okinawa Ocean Expo Aquarium (predecessor of Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium), were the first in the world to whale sharks in captivity, but did not exhibit them. At that time, the Osaka Aquarium was the only facility in the world that owned whale sharks. In 1994, aquariums succeeded in captivity the manta ray Second in the world, and in 1995, aquariums succeeded in captivity the Ocean sunfish.[2] Devil fish are also popular. In 2008, Osaka aquarium succeeded in captivity the World's first Spinetail mobula(Mobula japanica).[2]

The "New Interactive Area" that opened in 2013 allows visitors to see the animals up close and possibly touch them. In the "New Interactive Area", 3 zones are constructed, the Arctic zone, in which you see rounding ringed seals, Falkland Islands Zone, where you can see the rockhopper penguins, and the Maldives Zone, in which you can directly touch sharks and rays.[10]

In 2020, the museum shop was reopened on February 22 after renewal work was carried out to coincide with the 30th anniversary of its opening.

Research and conservation

Osaka Aquarium are focusing on research on sharks and Rays.[11] By 2016, Kaiyukan had successfully captivity or breeding 47 species of sharks, 37 species of rays, and 1 species of ghost shark, for a total of 85 species.[11] In addition, the past eight surveys of tagging whale sharks have revealed that they can migrate to the Philippines and dive to a depth of 1,500 m (4,900 ft).[12][13]　

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan has a research center in Iburi, Kochi Prefecture, where fish swimming tests and animals to be brought in are carried out in tanks with a water volume of 1,600,000 litres (423,000 US gal) and a water volume of 3,300,000 litres (872,000 US gal).[14][15][2] although it was not exhibited at the aquarium, they succeeded in captivity of Pelagic thresher for 26 days at the Research Center in Iburi, Kochi Prefecture.[11] Other captivity such as Chilean devil ray, which has not been recorded since Georgia Aquarium captivity in Taiwan, was also successful at the research center.[11] In 2001, the aquarium published a research book at the Research Center, publishing the knowledge accumulated by the Osaka aquarium over 10 years on 567 species of fish in 136 families. The research book later received the Kochi Prefecture Academic Publishing Award.[16][15]

In addition, since the opening of the Osaka Aquarium, it has succeeded in breeding Spotted Seal, Pelagic stingray, California Sealion, Sea otter, etc., and received the breeding award from JAZA.[16][2][17] aquariums also focusing on breeding and cultivation other than aquatic organisms, and in 1993, aquariums received the breeding award from JAZA for the first successful breeding of Spur-winged Lapwing in Japan.[17] In addition, about 200 species of plants are exhibited in the Japanese forest area inside the building.[17]

Research and conservation will be reported in Bulletin "kaiyu(かいゆう)".[18]

Architecture and name

The Kaiyukan's conceptual design, architecture, and exhibit design was led by Peter Chermayeff of Peter Chermayeff LLC while at Cambridge Seven Associates.[1] Peter Chermayeff also builds the Lisbon Oceanarium and other buildings.

TV personality Emiko Kaminuma states that it is her role to decide the name "海遊館 Kaiyukan" in Japanese.[19] Kaminuma, who was a member of the name selection committee among the common candidates starting from Marin, chose Kaiyukan, which had only one vote, and said, "It is better to make it an impactful'Kaiyukan'". Emiko Kaminuma said, "There is no impact with a mundane name that starts with Marin. If you express it in three kanji characters, the meaning will be easier to understand, and it will have an easy-to-understand impact like Dream Factory [ja] (夢工場). There is. " As a result, it was not named after Marine, which has a large number of votes, but was named Kaiyukan.[19]

Facilities

The themes, displays and their respective organisms at Kaiyukan are as follows.[20]

Aqua gate

• Chromis notata
• Siganus fuscescens
• Cownose ray and similar[21]

Japan Forests

• Oriental small-clawed otter
• Satsukimasu
• Japanese giant salamander and similar[22]

Aleutian Islands

• Tufted puffin
• Rainbow trout
• Sebastes inermis and similar[23]
• Sea otters (past)

Monterey Bay

• Spotted seals
• California sea lions[24]

Panama Bay

• Coati
• Porcupinefish[25]

Ecuadorian Jungle

• Arapaima
• Iguana
• Capybaras[26]

Antarctica

• Variety of penguins[27]

Tasmanian Sea

• Pacific white-sided dolphin[28]

Great Barrier Reef

• Chromis notata
• Butterflyfish and other species[29]

The Pacific Ocean

This is largest tank in the aquarium.

• Whale shark
• devil ray
• Scalloped hammerhead
• Bluefin tuna
• Giant Grouper and other large fish[30]

Seto Inland Sea

• Fish native to Seto, etc.[31]

The Giant Kelp Forest

• Ocean Sunfish
• Squid and other species[32]

Chilean Rocks

• South American pilchard
• Japanese anchovy and other species[33]

Cook Strait

• Sea tortoises and other species etc.[34]

Japanese Trench

• Australian ghostshark
• Japanese spider crab
• Largehead hairtail
• North Pacific giant octopus
• Sebastiscus marmoratus and other species[35]

Jellyfish Zone

• Varieties of jellyfish[36]

Deep sea Zone

• Giant isopods
• Japanese lobsters
• Trumpet fish and other species

Maldives sea(tatting tank)

• zebra shark
• Honeycomb whipray
• Rhinoptera and other sharks and rays

Falkland Island

• Rockhopper Penguin

Arctic

• Ringed seal

[5]

Gallery

Aqua gate

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penguins

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Tasmanian Sea tank

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The Pacific Ocean tank

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Japanese Trench tank

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Maldives sea pour

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Jellyfish Zone

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See also

• Mount Tenpō
• Tempozan Ferris Wheel

Notes

External links

• Official website (in English)

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