It looks like Nishinomiya City came in 7th place on TV Osaka’s “A Ranking of the Most Desirable Places to Live, Chosen from All 198 Municipalities in Kansai,” broadcast on March 16.
A Ranking of the Most Desirable Places to Live, Chosen from All 198 Municipalities in Kansai 2019
“A Ranking of the Most Desirable Places to Live, Chosen from All 198 Municipalities in Kansai” is a program that determines the “Kansai Most Desirable Places to Live Ranking” based on the following seven indicators.
- Medical care: Total number of hospitals and general clinics per population
- Safety: Number of reported Penal Code offenses per population from January to October 2018
- Financial strength: Key financial indicators of local public entities
- Commerce: Number of retail businesses per land area
- Cultural environment: Total number of elementary, junior high, and high schools, plus libraries
- Natural environment: Area of urban parks per land area
- Population growth rate: Population change over one year
A Stir Over Nishinomiya’s Ranking
Nishinomiya City apparently ranked 7th, with natural environment, cultural environment, and financial strength all scoring the maximum. Medical care, commerce, and population also scored quite highly. Its safety score was fairly low, which may be why it didn’t rank higher.
On the program, Nishinomiya City was introduced as having its greatest appeal in the fact that quiet residential neighborhoods sit right next to convenient commercial facilities for daily life.
For commercial facilities, the program mentioned Hankyu Nishinomiya Gardens being renewed for its 10th anniversary, as well as last year’s renewal of EBISTA Nishinomiya, which expanded its sales floor space by 1.7 times and increased its number of shops by 2.5 times. KidZania Koshien and Corowa Koshien were also featured.
In response to Nishinomiya’s 7th-place result, Nishinomiya native Hosei Tsukitei said, “I’m not quite convinced by this,” and there was a stir among High Heel Momoko and several comedians, who said things like, “I felt it would be higher.”
Rankings and Coverage of Nearby Cities
Ashiya City ranked 4th, Amagasaki City 5th, Kobe City 11th, Itami City 14th, and Takarazuka City 36th.
Kobe City, in 11th place, received a fairly long feature on the neighboring Kita Ward, described as “a rural lifestyle close to the city, 30 minutes by car to Sannomiya and one hour to Osaka.”
Takarazuka City, in 36th place, was introduced through the Takarazuka Revue and Osamu Tezuka. Amagasaki City, in 5th place, was featured for things like the high usage rate of iPads in school education, as well as its down-to-earth atmosphere and spacious, affordable rents. Ashiya City, in 4th place, was introduced through interviews about Amagasaki City ranking 5th.
By the way, 3rd place was Suita City in Osaka Prefecture, 2nd place was Osaka City, and 1st place was Toyonaka City in Osaka Prefecture.
As for most desirable places to live rankings, Nishinomiya City ranked 1st in SUUMO’s 2019 ranking of most desirable municipalities to live in. SUUMO’s ranking is based on a survey, while this program determined its rankings using seven indicators, so when the criteria change, the rankings change too. Even so, 7th place out of all 198 municipalities is pretty high, isn’t it?
