Hirakata Life Guide is a private information website created to help foreign residents live in Hirakata more easily, safely, and with better access to useful local information.

This website provides practical information about daily life in Hirakata, including city office procedures, health, childcare, transportation, emergencies, local rules, and helpful official links.

Hirakata Life Guide is not an official website of Hirakata City. Instead, it is operated as a private website that helps residents find and understand public information, official services, and local resources more easily.

Why We Created This Website

Living in a new country or city can be difficult when important information is hard to find, difficult to understand, or spread across many different websites and documents.

Hirakata City and other public organizations already provide important information for foreign residents. However, people may still have trouble finding the right information at the right time, especially when using a smartphone or searching by daily-life situations.

Hirakata Life Guide was created to support this gap. Our goal is not to replace official information, but to make it easier for people to reach the information, offices, services, and support they need.

Our Purpose

The purpose of Hirakata Life Guide is to make daily life in Hirakata easier to understand for foreign residents.

We organize information by real-life situations, such as moving to Hirakata, visiting the city office, seeing a doctor, raising children, using public transportation, preparing for disasters, and learning local rules.

By making information easier to find and understand, we hope to reduce confusion, anxiety, and unnecessary difficulties in daily life.

The Future We Hope For

We hope Hirakata will become a city where people from different countries and backgrounds can live with more confidence, safety, and peace of mind.

When necessary information reaches the people who need it, daily life becomes easier. Residents can take action earlier, ask for support more smoothly, and feel more connected to the community.

Hirakata Life Guide aims to become a practical information base that can be used not only as a website, but also in the future as downloadable PDFs, printed guides, posters, and other tools for daily life support.

Message from the Founder

What feels normal in one country may feel confusing in another.

I first traveled abroad when I was 17 years old. The place was China.

At the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, I saw that soldiers received a discounted admission fee. I was surprised, because Japan does not have a military in the same way, and I had never thought about that kind of system before.

Later, I traveled around the world by ship and visited many countries, including Vietnam, India, Kenya, Egypt, Italy, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Through these journeys, I experienced many different cultures, customs, buildings, foods, and ways of daily life.

One small moment I still remember happened in Italy. At a restaurant, I ordered orange juice. The waiter brought a carton of juice that had not yet been opened. He said something like “Excuse me,” then used the knife from my table setting to open the carton and pour the juice into a glass.

It was a very small thing, but I was surprised. In Japan, this would almost never happen. That moment made me realize that what feels normal in one country may feel completely unexpected in another.

On my honeymoon, I traveled halfway around Germany by high-speed train. From the first day, the departure time, route, and stopping stations changed. I did not understand why, and I was worried that I might have taken the wrong train. In Japan, trains usually arrive on time and follow fixed routes, so I was confused and anxious.

These experiences taught me that living or traveling in another country is not difficult only because of language. It can also be difficult because everyday rules, systems, and expectations are different.

Japan is an island country, and in many areas of daily life, Japanese is the main language used for information, services, and communication. Compared with regions where many languages and cultures are part of everyday life, people in Japan may not always be used to providing information in multiple languages.

This can create difficulties for foreign residents. Even when important information exists, it may be hard to find, hard to understand, or hard to use in real-life situations if it is only available in Japanese or organized in a way that assumes familiarity with Japanese systems and customs.

Hirakata is home to a university of foreign studies, and international students come to the city every year. There are also foreign residents who run restaurants, teach at English conversation schools, work at international schools, or live here with their families.

That is why I began to wonder: Is life in Hirakata truly easy and comfortable for them? Can they find the information they need when they need it? Do they know where to go, who to ask, and what to do in daily life?

Hirakata Life Guide was created from that question. I hope this website will help foreign residents feel less confused, less alone, and more confident as they live their daily lives in Hirakata.

Hiromi Hori
Founder, Hirakata Life Guide
Representative, Social Business Development ACTION

About ACTION

Hirakata Life Guide is operated by ACTION, a social business development organization based in Hirakata, Osaka.

ACTION works on information design, public relations support, brand communication, local media, website planning, content creation, and practical communication support for organizations, businesses, and local communities.

Our work is based on the idea that valuable information and services should reach the people who need them. We support projects that connect communities, businesses, and residents through clear communication and practical design.

ACTION also operates local media projects and provides support in areas such as public relations, brand development, local information design, and media-based community communication.

Operator Information

Website name Hirakata Life Guide
Operator Social Business Development ACTION
Representative Hiromi Hori
Website https://sbd-action.jp/
Address Biigo 229, Hirakata VIE.ORNER 5F, 7-1 Okahonmachi, Hirakata-shi, Osaka 573-0031, Japan
Business hours Weekdays, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Closed Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays, and other temporary holidays
Email info@hirakata-life-guide.com

Map

ACTION is located in Hirakata VIE.ORNER, near Hirakata-shi Station.