Abeno before redevelopment: wooden rows of houses in aerial photographs from 8 eras

Published: November 3, 2026 / About 9 min read

As far as the aerial photographs show, the town before the Abeno redevelopment was a fine-grained mass of wooden houses. If you step through the photographs of Abeno from the oldest, the pattern of small roofs packed southwest of Tennoji Station hardly changes shape through 5 eras, from around 1928 to 1974-78. The city plan for the City of Osaka's Abeno District Category II urban redevelopment project was decided in September 1976, yet in the photographs the old houses still take up most of the ground up to the photograph of June 1985.

This article sets the years the project area grew beside the months in which the photographs of this location were taken, and checks which stage of the project each photograph shows.

The last photograph before redevelopment is from 1984-86

The 1984-86 photograph of this location was taken in June 1985, and the project area had already grown to about 21.4 hectares in February 1983, a little over 2 years earlier. The reasons for the project given in the city's materials are the crowding of old wooden buildings and the shortage of roads and parks. The city treated this district as an area that needed improvement from the standpoints of both living conditions and disaster prevention.

The last of the past photographs, from FY2007, comes after 1994, when the area reached about 28.0 hectares, and before the end of fiscal 2012, when work on the 29 redevelopment buildings was finished.

How the project was decided, and the months of the photographs

The years and months of the decisions in the City of Osaka's materials are set here beside the months in which the photographs of this location were taken. The 1974-78 photograph was taken in March 1975, the 1979-83 photograph in September 1979, and the 1984-86 photograph in June 1985.

The photograph of March 1975 comes a year and a half before the city plan was decided, the photograph of September 1979 comes after the first expansion of the area, and the photograph of June 1985 comes the month after the project plan for District B2 was decided. The photographs of September 1979 and June 1985 show a stage at which the area had been decided but the replacement of the buildings was still to come.

Apart from the expansions of the area, project plans for the individual districts were also decided one after another: Districts B1 and C1-1 in August 1978, District C1-2 in January 1982, District D in August 1983, District A1 in June 1984, and District B2 in May 1985. By the time of the photograph of September 1979, only Districts B1 and C1-1 had project plans, and by the photograph of June 1985 the plans for 6 districts were all in place.

From around 1928 to 1974-78: the houses before the decision

The highlights of the 5 eras from around 1928 to 1974-78 are summed up in the commentary on the Abeno location page. Seen along the line of this article, all 5 eras were photographed before the city plan was decided. Even if you switch the houses in the southwest in 1974-78 back and forth with the photograph from around 1936-42, you find no clear difference in the size of the pattern.

The scheme of Category II urban redevelopment projects was created by the July 1975 amendment of the Urban Renewal Act, which had been promulgated in June 1969, and the photograph of March 1975 was taken 4 months before that amendment. The city plan for Abeno was decided in September 1976, a year and 2 months after the amendment.

1979-83 and 1984-86: the area in the middle of growing

The photograph of September 1979 was taken 10 months after the area grew to about 10.6 hectares. In this photograph, for the first time, large white roofs mix into the houses in the southwest. A thick curved line that sweeps from the left down to the bottom also appears from this era.

After that the area grew to about 14.6 hectares in February 1980, about 20.4 hectares in August 1981, and about 21.4 hectares in February 1983. In the 5 years and 9 months from September 1979 to June 1985 the area roughly doubled, but the change in the photographs is small, and even in the 1984-86 photograph the old houses take up most of the frame. In this period, the size of the area and the change in the photographs did not move at the same pace. The area of about 20.4 hectares in August 1981 was 2.8 times the first area of about 7.2 hectares, and less than 5 years after the decision it had reached a little over 70% of the final area of about 28.0 hectares.

The area grew nearly fourfold

It took 17 and a half years from the first decision to March 1994, when the area reached about 28.0 hectares, and in that time the area grew about 3.9 times. The project period ran from fiscal 1976 to fiscal 2017, and from the decision on the city plan to the completion in March 2018 there are 41 and a half years. The number of right holders was more than 3,000. In the 6 years and more from February 1983 to March 1989 the area grew by only about 0.7 hectares, and the expansion of March 1994 added about 5.9 hectares at once. From March 1994, the last expansion of the area, to the completion there are 24 years. According to the city's materials, the area spans parts of Abenosuji 1-3-chome and Asahi-machi 1-3-chome in Abeno Ward and Sanno 1-3-chome in Nishinari Ward.

In the plan, the number of dwellings grows to a little over 3 times, and the nighttime population to about 1.3 times. In both cases the values after the project are planned values, not values counted in the photographs.

The photographs from FY2007 and as of 2026

The FY2007 photograph shows a stage in the middle of the project, after the area had finished growing and before work on the buildings was finished. From the decision on the city plan to fiscal 2007 there are 31 years, and this photograph falls about three quarters of the way through the 41 and a half years from the decision to the completion. Before it, in March 1997, the project plan for District A2 was decided as an extension of District A1; in May 2002 the city plan was changed to alter the building area and total floor area of Block A2; and in September 2005 a change added a road called the Abeno North-South Line and 2 bicycle parking places. Work began on all the roads by fiscal 2015, and work on the 29 buildings finished at the end of fiscal 2012. The commentary on the Abeno location page describes the way the inside and the outside of the area look different in the photograph as of 2026.

Comparison with other locations in Osaka

The original land at the other 4 locations in Osaka is shown in the table below, and the article that compares the redevelopment of former factory sites sums up how to compare former factory sites with each other.

Check with elevation and official land prices

The elevation at the center of the location is 10.7 m, the measuring point to the east is 11.8 m, the south and the west are both 15.4 m, and the north is 16.4 m. The center is lower than every measuring point around it, and 5.7 m lower than the north.

The standard site of the official land prices (Chika Koji) is a residential lot in Daido 3-chome, Tennoji Ward, 472 m from the center. The project area lies in Abeno Ward and Nishinari Ward, so this value is for a residential lot outside the area and does not measure the effect of the project. The highest up to the 2026 publication is 827,000 yen in 1994, when the records begin, and the lowest up to the 2026 publication is 443,000 yen in both 2011 and 2012. Over the 17 years from 1994 to 2011 the price fell by 384,000 yen, and 331,000 yen of that was the fall in the 6 years up to 2000. Over the 14 years from 2012 to 2026 it rose by 177,000 yen. From 477,000 yen in the 2018 publication, just before the completion, to 620,000 yen in 2026, the rise was 143,000 yen over 8 years. The 620,000 yen of 2026 is about three quarters of the 827,000 yen of 1994, the highest up to the 2026 publication.

Step through the eras to check

If you switch back and forth between 1984-86 and the photograph as of 2026 on the Abeno location page, you can see the area where fine-grained houses were replaced by large buildings and its edge with the outside that was not replaced.

The prices in this article are actual examples at each point in time and do not reflect market prices after the article was written.