Hirakata City is located in the Kitakawachi region of Osaka Prefecture. With a population of about 400,000, it ranks fifth in the prefecture after Osaka City, Sakai, Higashiosaka, and Toyonaka. It was a post town on the Kyokaido route and served as a core city of the Kitakawachi region, once hosting the Kawachi-gun district office. The city is home to attractions such as Hirakata Park, and it is also known as the home base of the Panasonic Panthers, a top team in Japan’s V.League volleyball. During the Heisei-era municipal merger discussions, there was also debate about merging with Neyagawa and Katano under the concept of a 700,000-population government-designated city known as the ‘Kitakawachi City Plan.’ The city’s terrain can be divided into four broad zones by elevation; the eastern edge connects to the Ikoma mountain range. To the west of the foothill zone, the Amanogawa River separates the Hirakata Plateau on the east from the Kori Hills on the west. The hill zone is covered by strata known as the Osaka Group, deposited through repeated glacial and interglacial periods from about two million years ago to several tens of thousands of years ago. Fossils such as elephants and ancient Japanese deer have been excavated from these layers.