Whity (Umeda) Shopping Mall

Whity is an underground shopping mall brimming with dining options just off the JR Osaka Umeda station complex.

Whity’s underground entrance coming from the direction of JR Osaka © Angelino Donnachaidh

Overflowing with dining options and conveniently located with direct indoor access from all of the major Umeda area stations, Whity is a core part of what locals affectionately call the “Umeda Dungeon” – a sprawling network of underground shopping malls and subway passageways – Whity is packed with dining options.

Come here for traditional restaurant dining, fast food, cafes, dessert, take-out, or even dinner with drinks. And even if you somehow don’t find something for you in its many options, Whity is extremely well-connected to numerous other shopping and dining complexes both in other parts of the Umeda dungeon and aboveground.

Craft beer and traditional restaurant dining in the Whity South Mall © Angelino Donnachaidh

Since the early 2010s, JR Osaka station and its surrounding Umeda area has been undergoing a transformation from a relatively normal downtown transit hub and business area into a hyper-dense megacity in miniature. Street-level new redevelopments have merged with underground commercial revitalization efforts, together undergirding a fast new “city in the sky” linking many of the area’s new and old shopping and office towers with pedestrian bridges.

The result is a complex human beehive bustling with activity and packed to the gills with options for shopping, dining, and entertainment where a person could realistically live their entire life without ever having to go outside – if for some reason you wanted to live out a scifi dystopia voluntarily. Whity is part of the old guard of this neighborhood, though it has undergone its own renovations and redevelopments that have carried it into the modern area.

Whity’s Teishoku dining lunch rush © Angelino Donnachaidh

This vertically and horizontally integrated “City in the Sky” concept owes some of its inceptions to Hiroshi Hara, the visionary architect behind such contemporary landmarks as the current JR Kyoto Station building. In the heady days of the 1980s bubble economy, Hara designed the area’s landmark Umeda Sky Building, a pair of twin towers joined at the top by a viewing area and outdoor plaza complete with cafes and restaurants, complete with a park area and even small rice and vegetable gardens at its foot and an underground restaurant area in its basement.

Though this was an impressive proof of concept, it was much smaller than Hara’s ultimate vision for the area, which saw it lined with massive towers all joined at their upper levels like tree trunks forming a canopy, for a city on a city in which one could stroll block after block of utopian urban living with everything they need and without ever having to cross a street or look out for traffic.

Teishoku dining in Whity’s North Mall © Angelino Donnachaidh

What feels remarkable today is how prescient Hara’s vision for the area was. It might not look exactly like his architectural sketches, but it’s hard to deny that Umeda has functionally become what he imagined.

And whether you want a sit-down meal while checking out this anthill of central Osaka’s northern urban center or just a quick perusal and a refuel while changing trains among the many hub stations located within it, the underground restaurant streets of Whity are a great place to do it.

Read more about Whity’s shopping facilities.

About Angelino Donnachaidh
Angelino Donnachaidh is a Mexican-American father, author, Japanese-English translator, and longtime resident of Osaka, Japan. His works include the middle grade (pre-)historical fiction novel Tamiu: A Cat’s Tale (Winner of the North Street Prize and CWA Muse Medallion), the YA post-cyberpunk heist adventure screenplay Brother (Winner of the HollywoodGenre 2025 Scifi Screenplay Competition), and the upcoming samurai scifi-fantasy action-thriller novel The Mayhem Protocols.

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Whity Umeda Information

Name in English:
Whity Umeda

Name in Japanese:
ホワイティうめだ

English address:
〒530-0018 Osaka, Kita Ward, Komatsubaracho, 梅田地下街 4-2

Japanese address:
〒530-0018 大阪府大阪市北区小松原町梅田地下街 4-2

Opening hours:
Varies from restaurant to restaurant. Most restaurants open from approximately 11:00am-10:00pm.

Non-smoking area: Yes

Nearest transport:
1-minute walk from Higashi-Umeda Station (Exit 1) on the Osaka Metro (Subway) Tanimachi Line
1-minute walk from Umeda Station (Exit 13) on the Osaka Metro (Subway) Midosujii Line
1-minute walk from Osaka Umeda Station (East Gate) on the Hanshin Line
3-minute walk from Osaka-Umeda Station (2nd Floor Central Gate or 3rd Floor Gate) on the Hankyu Kyoto, Kobe, and Takarazuka Main Lines
3-minute walk from Osaka Station on the JR Loop, Tokaido-Sanyo, and Osaka East Lines

Website: Official website (Japanese)

Customer Reviews:
:: Read customer reviews of Whity Umeda on TripAdvisor.

Near To Here:
Whity Umeda is located in Osaka’s Kita and Umeda district. See our complete list of things to do in the Kita and Umeda district, including places to eat, nightlife and places to stay.

Best Osaka Restaurants
See our list of the best Osaka restaurants for even more ideas about great places to eat in Osaka and our other recommended Osaka food courts, restaurant floors and dining neighborhoods in Osaka.

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• Map pins are color coded - BLUE: Hotels / Ryokan / Guesthouses | VIOLET: Ryokan | PINK: Places to Eat | GREEN: Shops | YELLOW: Things to See and Do
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