Nagai Stadium Guide Cerezo Osaka

Japan Stadiums: Nagai Stadium Osaka

Nagai Stadium Osaka, Japan. — Main entrance, Nagai Stadium, Osaka

Nagai Stadium in Osaka (大阪市長居陸上競技場) is a home ground of Cerezo Osaka, a J.League club and is also used for concerts, rugby matches featuring NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes Osaka as well as various athletic events such as the annual Osaka Women's Marathon.

For sponsorship reasons the stadium has been known as Yanmar Stadium Nagai since 2014.

The stadium is owned by the Osaka municipality and is surrounded by the large Nagai Park south of Osaka city center. It is one of the older stadiums in the J.League but has been renovated several times since its initial construction in the 1960s.

The natural grass playing surface measures 105 by 68 meters surrounded by a running track. There are two large electronic screens.

There are in fact three stadiums within the large Nagai Park sports complex, Nagai Stadium, the 24,481-capacity Yodoko Sakura Stadium, where Cerezo now play most of their home games, and also the Yanmar Field Nagai (Osaka Nagai Second Stadium).

Nagai Stadium Osaka. — Nagai Stadium on the right and Yodoko Sakura Stadium on the left

History & Capacity

The then 23,000 capacity stadium first opened in 1964 and staged soccer games during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. This seating capacity was later enlarged to 50,000 in 1996.

As an athletics stadium Nagai hosted both the 2001 East Asian Games and the 2007 World Athletics Championships.

World Cup 2002

The ground was also a venue for three games during the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan. These were the 0-0 draw between Nigeria and England, Japan's 2-0 win over Tunisia and the quarterfinal between Senegal and Turkey.

Presently, the stadium has a capacity of 47,000.

Nagai Park also contains the interesting Osaka Museum of Natural History with lots of dinosaurs for the kids.

The stadium opened for the 1964 Olympic Games. — The stadium first opened for the 1964 Olympic Games

Access - Getting There

The ground is a 5-minute walk from both Tsurugaoka Station on the JR Hanwa Line and Nagai Station on the Midosuji Line of the Osaka subway network.

Various buses also stop at Nagai Koen (Nagai Park).

Address: 1-1 Nagai-Koen, Higashisumiyoshi-ku, Osaka City, Osaka 546-0034 (546-0034 大阪府大阪市東住吉区長居公園1-1)

The nearest subway station is Nagai on the north-south Midosuji Line. — The nearest subway station is Nagai on the north-south Midosuji Line

Nearby Hotels

Japan's second city offers several recommended hotels if you are spending time in the Kansai area of western Japan.

Some recommendations include the Osaka Marriott Miyako Hotel, a 5-star property within Japan's tallest skyscraper, Abeno Harukas in the nearby Tennoji/Abeno district.

The Yoshiya Hotel is no-frills, 3-star business hotel, southwest of Tennoji Station.

The 2-star Yamato by Doyanen provides fairly basic accommodation in the once, rather seedy Nishinaru-ku as does the 1-star Hotel Beaver 2.