250px, Showa Memorial Park is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in the western portion of the

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 184,383 in 93,428 households, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 7,600 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Tachikawa is located on the Musashino Terrace of western Tokyo, approximately 40 km west of the center of Tokyo. The

Tama River The is a major river in Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures on Honshū, Japan. It is officially classified as a Class 1 river by the Government of Japan, Japanese government. It is long, an ...

flows between Tachikawa and the neighboring city of Hino. The ''Tamagawa-jousui'' ( Tamagawa Aqueduct) flows north of the city, with a great promenade on both banks.

Surrounding municipalities

* Akishima * Fussa * Higashiyamato * Hino * Kodaira * Kokubunji * Kunitachi * Musashimurayama

Climate

Tachikawa has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Tachikawa is 13.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1647 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Tachikawa has increased steadily over the past century.

History

The area of present-day Tachikawa was part of ancient

Musashi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Kawasaki and Yokohama. ...

and was controlled from the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

through the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

by the Tachikawa clan. In the Edo period, it was little more than a village along the Koshu Kaido. In the post-

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

cadastral reform of July 22, 1878, the area became part of Kitatama District in

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

In the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

, the opening of what would later become the Chuo Main Line in 1889 led to a large-scale land development and on April 1, 1889, with the establishment of the modern municipalities law, the village of Tachikawa was created. Kitatama District was transferred to the administrative control of Tokyo Metropolis on April 1, 1893. Tachikawa Airfield Was established in 1922 by the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

, and Tachikawa was elevated to town status the following year. On December 1, 1940, Tachikawa was elevated to city status. Before the war, Tachikawa was a military town centered on Tachikawa Airfield, and even after the war, it was a major base for the U.S. military until 1977.

Notable events

On May 12, 2011, the robbery of the largest amount of money in Japanese history took place in the city. At 3 a.m. that day, two men wearing masks broke into the office of a security company, bound the sole security guard, beat him until he revealed the code to the company's vault, and then made off with 70 bags of cash containing ¥604 million. The security guard, 36, was seriously injured. Hideaki Ueki, 31, Yutaka Watanabe, 41, Tsutomu Sakuma, 37, and three others were later arrested and charged with perpetrating the crime. All the men allegedly had ties to the

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...

Notable people

* Alan Hale (astronomer) co-discovered

Comet Hale–Bopp Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) is a long-period comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades. Alan Hale (astronomer), Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp disc ...

Diana DeGette Diana Louise DeGette ( ; born July 29, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, her district is based in Denver. DeGette was a Chief Deputy Whip from 2005 ...

Government

Tachikawa has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city council of 28 members. Tachikawa contributes two members to the

Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly The is the Prefectures of Japan, prefectural parliament of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis. Its 127 members are elected every four years in 42 districts by single non-transferable vote. 23 electoral districts equal the Special wards of Tokyo, special wa ...

. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Tokyo 21st district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Tachikawa is a regional commercial center, and is also a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for downtown Tokyo. It is the central city of the populous "Tokyo Santama district", and commercial facilities such as department stores and offices are concentrated around Tachikawa Station. Agriculture is now largely vestigial, but Tachikawa was formerly known for its production of ''udo''.

Education

Universities and colleges

* Kunitachi College of Music *

Tokyo Health Care University is a private university headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan. The university offers health professional education programs in undergraduate and graduate levels. History The predecessor of the university, Aobagakuen Junior College, was e ...

- Tachikawa campus

Primary and secondary schools

The city has two public high schools and one public junior-senior high school operated by the

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education (東京都教育委員会 ''Tōkyō-to Kyōiku Iinkai'') is the board of education in Tokyo, Japan. The board directly manages most of the Public school (government funded), public secondary schoo ...

. * * * - "Kokusai" means international Tachikawa has 19 public elementary and nine public junior high schools operated by the city government. Municipal junior high schools: * Tachikawa No. 1 ( 立川第一中学校) * Tachikawa No. 2 ( 立川第二中学校) * Tachikawa No. 3 (立川第三中学校) * Tachikawa No. 4 (立川第四中学校) * Tachikawa No. 5 (立川第五中学校) * Tachikawa No. 6 (立川第六中学校) * Tachikawa No. 7 (立川第七中学校) * Tachikawa No. 8 (立川第八中学校) * Tachikawa No. 9 ( 立川第九中学校) Municipal elementary schools: * Tachikawa Daiichi (No. 1) Elementary School ( 第一小学校) * No. 2 Elementary School ( 第二小学校) * No. 3 Elementary School (第三小学校) * No. 4 Elementary School (第四小学校) * No. 5 Elementary School ( 第五小学校) * No. 6 Elementary School (第六小学校) * No. 7 Elementary School (第七小学校) * No. 8 Elementary School ( 第八小学校) * No. 9 Elementary School (第九小学校) * No. 10 Elementary School (第十小学校) * Kamisunagawa Elementary School (上砂川小学校) * Kashiwa Elementary School (柏小学校) * Matsunaka Elementary School (松中小学校) * Minamisuna Elementary School (南砂小学校) * Nishisuna Elementary School (西砂小学校) * Oyama Elementary School (大山小学校) * Saiwai Elementary School ( 幸小学校) * Shinsei Elementary School (新生小学校) * Wakabadai Elementary School ( 若葉台小学校) There are also three private high schools. * * *

International schools

*Tachikawa International Secondary Education School. * West Tokyo Korean 1st Elementary and Junior High School ( 西東京朝鮮第一初中級学校) - North Korean school

Public libraries

The Tokyo Metropolitan Library Tama Library opened in Tachikawa in 1987 to relieve municipal libraries.Tokyo Metropolitan Tama Library
/ref>

Transportation

Railway

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

–

Chūō Main Line The , commonly called the Chūō Line, is one of the major trunk railway lines in Japan. It connects Tokyo and Nagoya, although it is the slowest direct railway connection between the two cities; the coastal Tōkaidō Main Line is slightly faste ...

–

Ōme Line The is a railway line operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in western Tokyo, Japan. It links Tachikawa and the Chūō Line with the town of Okutama. Many Chūō Line trains operate via the Ōme Line to Ōme Station, providing a ...

*Tachikawa -

– Nanbu Line *Tachikawa - SeibuRailway mark

Seibu Railway is a conglomerate based in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan, with principal business areas in railways, tourism, and real estate. Seibu Railway's operations are concentrated in northwest Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture; the name "Seibu" is an abbrevi ...

Seibu Haijima Line The is a railway line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by Seibu Railway. It acts as a branch line of the Seibu Shinjuku Line, with direct trains to Seibu-Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. Haijima Liner ''Haijima Liner'' is a reserved seat express servi ...

* - -

Tama Monorail * - - - - - -

Highway

Tachikawa is not served by any national expressways or national highways.

Local attractions

* Showa Memorial Park, an expansive leisure and recreational facility operated by the national government, occupies 1.49 square kilometres of land that was formerly part of

Tachikawa Air Base is an aerodrome, airfield in the city of Tachikawa, Tokyo, Tachikawa, in the western part of Tokyo, Japan. Currently under the administration of the Ministry of Defense (Japan), Ministry of Defense, it has also served as a civilian airport with ...

in Tachikawa and neighboring Akishima. * Tachikawa Velodrome

Sister cities

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

, United States, since December 23, 1959

References

External links

{{Authority control Cities in Tokyo Western Tokyo