Founded in 1909 as Ohtani Women’s Dress-Making School, Osaka Ohtani Univesity went through a series of incarnations before emerging in 1966 as Ohtani Women’s University. It has continued to evolve since, with the most significant changes being the shift to co-education and acquisition of its current name in 2006.
It is located in Tondabayashi, a district of Osaka which claims that its annual Perfect Liberty Firework Festival is the largest in the world and in which students are surrounded by history.
Since 2007 the university has collaborated with Tondayashi City on a variety of staff and student training exchanges and to produce Child Information, the city’s magazine for children.
A satellite campus was opened around 15 miles away in the new 300m tall Harukas building, Japan’s tallest building, in the Tennoji district in 2014.
Formally a Buddhist institution, its founding principle was that of "repaying gratitude" and that there should be "a sense of closeness between student and teacher and between students themselves". As a women-only institution it sought to "foster women in leadership abilities" and now sees itself as "a university which brings students together and nurtures the strength to overcome a difficult age".
Students are divided between the faculties of literature, education, humanities and pharmacy. Pharmacy, founded in 2006, is notably strong in research and started to offer doctorates in 2019.
The majority of international students come from China, Vietnam and South Korea, which also accounts for four of its 10 international agreements, the most recent with Woosong University in 2019.
