Osaka City University (OCU) (大阪市立大学, Ōsaka shiritsu daigaku), abbreviated to Ichidai or Shidai (市大), is a public university in Japan. It is located in Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka City. OCU's predecessor was founded in 1880, as the Osaka Commercial Training Institute (大阪商業講習所) with donations by local merchants. It developed into Osaka Commercial School in 1885, then was municipalized in 1889. Osaka City was defeated in a bid to draw the Second National Commercial College (the winner was Kobe City), so the city authorities decided to establish a municipal commercial college without any aid from the national budget. In 1901 the school was reorganized into Osaka Municipal Commercial College (市立大阪高等商業学校), later authorized under Specialized School Order in 1904. The college had grand brick buildings around the Taishō period - the most prosperous days both of the school and of the city. In 1928 the college developed into Osaka University of Commerce (大阪商科大学), the first municipal university in Japan. The city mayor, Dr.