VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Johannesburg or Osaka?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Johannesburg for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Johannesburg’s own page.

Choose Osaka for

  • getting around
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Johannesburg 5, Osaka 34: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Osaka 63: Osaka leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Osaka 58: Osaka leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 72 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Osaka 60: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Osaka.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgOsaka

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgOsaka
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageJapanese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation1,753 m20 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgOsaka
City population4,803,2622,751,862
People per km²2,92212,340
Museums within 10 km1444
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km26
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Osaka somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.