The Osaka Confederation of Shopping Arcade Councils was founded in order to promote the economy and the stability of Osakans’ consumer lifestyles. In February of 1946 (Showa 21), the order in people’s lives was devastated following the end of the war. Because of this, shopping arcades in Osaka city stepped forward, forming the core of a movement which believed in restoring order and stability to the hearts of the city’s residents. Successive generations of the Confederation’s officers and members have worked together on modernization and environmental maintenance initiatives, with the result that the shopping arcades of Osaka now number 300, and are populated by more than 11,000 individual storefronts. The Confederation itself is a contender for first or second place among organizations, nationwide.