Bonenkai in Osaka:
Year-End Party Bars for Groups, Till 5am
How do you pick a bar for a year-end party, a bonenkai, in Osaka? Check four things, in this order: whether the bar can seat your party as a group or be hired whole, whether it is within walking distance of the restaurant where you eat, how late it stays open, and whether its rules on smoking and karaoke suit the people who are coming. Our three Korean bars HEAVEN, 韓国バーMOON and SARANG in Higashi-Shinsaibashi take enquiries about group visits and whole-bar hire by phone or Instagram DM, open every day from 21:00 to 05:00, and stand a short walk from one another in Higashi-Shinsaibashi, so the second round after a year-end dinner in Minami can be settled on foot.
I am Korean, and I run those three bars in Higashi-Shinsaibashi, Osaka. This page is for anyone organising a bonenkai for colleagues, classmates or friends in the city, and for groups visiting Osaka in December who want one place to close the year together.
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What bonenkai and nijikai mean
Bonenkai is written 忘年会 in Japanese. The three characters are 忘 (forget), 年 (year) and 会 (gathering), so the word literally means a gathering to forget the year: a drinking party held toward the end of the year to close it out with the people you spent it with. The usual English rendering is year-end party, and this page uses both terms because people search for them separately.
Nijikai is 二次会, literally the second gathering. It is the round that carries on at a different place once the first venue is finished. A bonenkai that begins with dinner and moves on to a bar is therefore a bonenkai followed by a nijikai, and the bar is the nijikai venue. These two words are all the Japanese you need to describe the whole evening to a Japanese organiser or to bar staff.
I am keeping to the meaning of the words themselves. How a particular company, school or circle of friends holds its bonenkai is its own affair, and the practical questions below apply whatever form yours takes.
Seven things to check before you choose the bar
The table is my own way of organising the decision. Where our bars are the example, the facts are ours; everywhere else the question is one to put to whichever bar you are considering.
| The point to check | How to check it |
|---|---|
| Party size and the shape of the seats | Can the bar take your party as a group, or be hired whole? Are the seats for sitting and talking, or for standing and singing? HEAVEN can be hired whole for up to 30 people, SARANG for up to 20 and 韓国バーMOON for around 15, and whole-bar hire has its own special rate system; ask for the details by Instagram DM. |
| Distance from the first venue | Can the party walk there from dinner? In Minami, Dotonbori and the Shinsaibashi-suji arcade are within walking distance of Higashi-Shinsaibashi; from the Glico sign the walk is about 6 to 8 minutes. |
| Closing time | How late does it stay open? Our three bars open at 21:00 and close at 05:00 every day. |
| Karaoke, darts or neither | Is this a singing party or a talking party? HEAVEN has free karaoke and darts, 韓国バーMOON has karaoke, and SARANG has no karaoke. |
| Smoking | With smokers and non-smokers together, settle each bar’s rule before you choose: HEAVEN and 韓国バーMOON allow smoking indoors, and SARANG is fully non-smoking. |
| Payment | Cash, card or both? Our three bars take credit cards and cash. |
| The journey home | Look up last-train times on each railway company’s official timetable. Anyone who has been drinking leaves the car, motorbike or bicycle where it is. |
The first and third rows decide most of it. A party that can walk in as a group and stay until 05:00 has no reason to watch the clock, and a bar that can be hired whole turns the second round into a room of your own.
The fourth and fifth rows are where a mixed party goes wrong if nobody asks in advance. Somebody who wants to sing and somebody who wants to escape the smoke are both easier to please when the organiser already knows which bar does what, which is why the three bars below are listed by purpose rather than by name alone.
A bonenkai in Minami: dinner first, then walk to the second venue
The shape this page assumes is simple. The first venue is a restaurant somewhere in Minami, around Dotonbori or along the Shinsaibashi-suji arcade, and when the meal is over the party walks east to Higashi-Shinsaibashi for the nijikai. From the Glico sign on Dotonbori it is about 6 to 8 minutes on foot to our three bars, and both Shinsaibashi Station and Namba Station are within walking distance, so a party that has split up after dinner can regroup at the bar door.
In late 2026 the walk itself comes with lights. According to Osaka City’s press release of 26 May 2026, the Midosuji Illumination 2026, the core programme of Osaka Hikari no Kyoen 2026, runs for 59 days from Tuesday 3 November 2026, a public holiday, to Thursday 31 December 2026, lit from around 17:00 to 25:00, which is 1:00 the following morning. The lit section runs from the Hanshin-mae intersection in Kita ward down to the Namba-Nishiguchi intersection in Chuo ward, so its southern end is in Minami, and a walk from dinner toward Higashi-Shinsaibashi or back to Namba Station can take it in. Osaka Hikari no Kyoen 2026 as a whole runs for 90 days from 3 November 2026 to Sunday 31 January 2027, with only some of its area programmes continuing from 1 January 2027, and OSAKA Hikari no Renaissance 2026 runs for 15 days from Friday 11 December to Friday 25 December 2026 around Osaka City Hall and Nakanoshima Park, with some of its content on from 3 November to 31 December. Those dates are as announced by Osaka City on 26 May 2026, and the city may change them.
If your party is deciding between districts rather than between bars, our guide to Osaka’s nightlife districts, area by area sets out where each one is and how it works at night, and our guide to Osaka nightlife in November covers the weeks when the illumination begins.
The late-December 2026 calendar
Fixing the date is usually the organiser’s first job, so here are the days of the week for the end of 2026. Friday 25 December is followed by the last weekend of the year, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 December, then Monday 28 December. New Year’s Eve, 31 December, is a Thursday, and 1 January 2027 is a Friday.
When your own organisation stops for the year is for it to decide, so I am listing the days and leaving the choice to you. What I can add is that our three bars open every day of the year, those dates included, from 21:00 to 05:00, so a bonenkai held on the final weekend, on a weeknight before it, or on New Year’s Eve itself finds the same hours waiting.
The organiser’s checklist
Five things to settle before the day, in the order they usually come up.
- Choose a meeting point everyone can find. A station or a landmark works: Shinsaibashi Station, Namba Station, or the Glico sign on Dotonbori. The walking routes from each of them to our bars are laid out in our access guide to Higashi-Shinsaibashi.
- For a group or a whole-bar hire, get in touch first. HEAVEN can be hired whole for up to 30 people, SARANG for up to 20 and 韓国バーMOON for around 15, and whole-bar hire has its own special rate system, so send the date, the time and the number of people by Instagram DM and ask for the details. A small party can simply walk in, since no reservation is needed.
- Ask who smokes and who sings. Those two answers point you to one of the three bars in the table below, and asking early saves an argument on the pavement.
- Say the age rule out loud. Guests under 20 cannot enter our bars, so a party that includes anyone under 20 needs a different second venue, and it is kinder to say so when the invitation goes out.
- Plan the way home. Check last-train times on each railway’s official timetable; with the bars open until 05:00, staying through to the first train is also an option. Anyone who has had a drink leaves the car, motorbike or bicycle behind.
Our three Korean bars in Higashi-Shinsaibashi for the second round
All three are on upper floors of buildings in Higashi-Shinsaibashi 2-chome: HEAVEN: fifth floor, Galaxy Building No.3; 韓国バーMOON: third floor, LUXE Building; SARANG: room 206, second floor, Gold Center Building. Each is a short walk from the other two, about 6 to 8 minutes on foot from the Glico sign, and reachable on foot from Shinsaibashi Station or Namba Station.
At every one of them Korean staff are behind the counter, K-pop plays, and the drinks are Korean: soju, makgeolli and somaek. You can talk with the staff across the counter while you drink, a conversation with the next seat sometimes starts on its own, Japanese guests who love Korea and Korean guests who love Japan share the room, and walking in by yourself is easy. Our three bars do not serve food, so finish the year-end dinner at the first venue and come up to us for the second round. The hours are 21:00 to 05:00 every day with no closing day, and no reservation is needed to walk in; whole-bar hire is possible at HEAVEN for up to 30 people, at SARANG for up to 20 and at 韓国バーMOON for around 15, with a special rate system for hire, and the details are given by Instagram DM. Credit cards and cash are both taken. On Google Maps each bar carries a 4.9 rating; the September 2026 review counts are 2,844 (HEAVEN), 380 (韓国バーMOON) and 678 (SARANG).
| Bar | Suits a party that wants to | What is in the room |
|---|---|---|
| HEAVEN | Sing together and get loud as a group | Karaoke and darts are free to use, and smoking is allowed indoors |
| 韓国バーMOON | Sit down and talk over a long drink | Shisha and lounge seating, with karaoke available and smoking allowed indoors |
| SARANG | Keep it small and quiet, or come alone | Fully non-smoking, built around counter seats, with no karaoke |
- 21:00 to 05:00 every day, no closing day, and walk-ins need no reservation. A group or a whole-bar hire is best arranged beforehand by phone or Instagram DM.
- Pay by credit card or in cash at any of the three.
- HEAVEN and 韓国バーMOON permit smoking indoors; SARANG is fully non-smoking throughout.
- Group visits and whole-bar hire can be arranged, with whole-bar hire for up to 30 people at HEAVEN, up to 20 at SARANG and around 15 at 韓国バーMOON under a special rate system; ask for the details by Instagram DM.
- Guests under 20 cannot enter. Anyone who has had a drink leaves the car, motorbike or bicycle behind.
Directions on foot from each station are in our access guide to Higashi-Shinsaibashi, our picker for choosing one of the three bars narrows the choice to one bar in a few taps, and our page on what to watch for on a night out in Minami is worth reading before a year-end night in the district.
HEAVEN
Fifth floor, karaoke and darts free to use: the bar for a year-end party that wants to sing as a group.
5F Galaxy Building No.3, 2-4-19 Higashi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka
Open in Google MapsMOON
Third floor, shisha and lounge seats: for a second round spent sitting down and talking.
3F LUXE Building Naka Room, 2-8-6 Higashi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka
Open in Google MapsSARANG
Second floor, fully non-smoking, counter seats and no karaoke: for a small party or a quiet drink alone.
Room 206, Gold Center Building, 2-8-12 Higashi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka
Open in Google Maps
FAQ
Q. How do I choose a bar for a bonenkai or its nijikai in Osaka?
Check four things: whether the bar can take your party as a group or be hired whole, whether it is within walking distance of the restaurant, how late it stays open, and whether its rules on smoking and karaoke suit the people coming. The table above turns those into seven questions to ask any bar.
Q. Can your bars take a large group, or be hired whole?
Yes. Whole-bar hire is available at HEAVEN for up to 30 people, at SARANG for up to 20 and at 韓国バーMOON for around 15, and it has its own special rate system. Send an Instagram DM with the date, time and party size and ask for the details.
Q. How late are you open in December?
Every day from 21:00 to 05:00, with no closing day, so a party can arrive after dinner and stay until the first trains.
Q. Does a bonenkai party need a reservation?
No. A small party can walk straight in. A group or a whole-bar hire is best arranged in advance by phone or Instagram DM.
Q. Can we smoke?
Smoking is allowed indoors at HEAVEN and 韓国バーMOON. SARANG is fully non-smoking, which makes it the choice for a party of non-smokers.
Q. Is there karaoke?
HEAVEN has karaoke and darts free to use, 韓国バーMOON has karaoke, and SARANG has no karaoke, so it suits a party that wants to talk.
Q. How do we get there from the restaurant?
On foot. Our three bars are about 6 to 8 minutes from the Glico sign on Dotonbori and within walking distance of Shinsaibashi Station and Namba Station; the access guide has the routes step by step.
Q. Is there a minimum age?
Yes. Guests under 20 cannot enter, so a bonenkai that includes anyone under 20 needs a different second venue.
Sources and date checked: Osaka City press release, “The dates of Osaka Hikari no Kyoen 2026 have been decided” (『大阪・光の饗宴2026』の開催期間が決定しました), announced 26 May 2026, viewed 25 October 2026; days of the week from the 2026 to 2027 calendar; details of the three Osaka bars from Google Maps (as of September 2026). The dates and hours of the illuminations can change.