250px, Showa Memorial Park is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

located in the western portion of

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. , the city had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

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

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of 7600 persons per km². The total area of the city was .

Geography

Tachikawa is located on the

Musashino Terrace The , also translated as Musashino Platform and also named as Musashino Region, is a large tableland (known as a fluvial terrace) in the Kantō region of Honshu, Japan. The Musashino Plateau is a plateau that extends between the Arakawa and Tama R ...

of western Tokyo, approximately 40 km west of the center of Tokyo. The

Tama River The is a major river in Yamanashi, Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures on Honshū, Japan. It is officially classified as a Class 1 river by the Japanese government. Its total length is , and the total of the river's basin area spans . The river ...

flows between Tachikawa and the neighboring city of Hino. The ''Tamagawa-jousui'' (

Tamagawa Aqueduct is a 43 km long Japanese aqueduct located in Tokyo. It was constructed by the Tokugawa shogunate to supply drinking and fire-fighting water from the Tama river to Edo, providing irrigation water around farm villages. The aqueduct was made fol ...

) flows north of the city, with a great promenade on both banks.

Surrounding municipalities

Kunitachi 250px, Daigaku-dori and sakura is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 76,423 in 38,825 households, and a population density of 9,400 persons per km2. Approximately 41.9% of ...

* Hino *

Akishima is a Cities of Japan, city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 113,542, and a population density of 6500 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Akishima is loc ...

* Kokubunji * Mushimurayama * Higashiyamato *

Kodaira is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 195,207 in 93,654 households, and a population density of 9500 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Kodaira ...

Fussa is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 56,786, and a population density of 5600 persons per km². The total area of the city is . About one third of the city area is occup ...

Climate

Tachikawa has a

Humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(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 increased steadily of the past century.

History

The area of present-day Tachikawa was part of ancient

Musashi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama. Musashi bordered on Kai, Kōzuke, Sagami, S ...

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 Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

through then

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

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 practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

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

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

In the

Meiji period The is 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 colonization ...

, 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 is an airfield in the city of Tachikawa, the western part of Tokyo, Japan. Currently under the administration of the Ministry of Defense, it has also served as the civil aviation with Japan's first scheduled air service. History Origins Tach ...

Was established in 1922 by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, 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 US military until 1977.

Notable events

On May 12, 2011, a robbery of the largest amount of money in Japanese history took place in the city. On that day at 3 a.m., 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 ...

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, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

city council of 28 members. Tachikawa contributes two members to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Tokyo 21st district of the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

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 The is a private music conservatory in Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1926 as the Tokyo Conservatory of Music, Kunitachi now offers study programs in performance, music education, composition, computer music, and musicology, for bachelor ...

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 es ...

- 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 all of the public high schools in all 23 special wards, the Wester ...

. * * * - "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 is the metropolitan public library system for Tokyo, Japan. Libraries The Tokyo Metropolitan Library has two branches. The Hibiya Library, a third branch, was closed on April 1, 2009. Both branches provide access to free public Wi-Fi, printing an ...

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 is 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 ...

–

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 non-s ...

*Tachikawa - JR logo (east)

– 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. Stations :O: stop : SE: : E: : HL: All trains on this line sto ...

* - -

Tama Monorail * - - - - - -

Highway

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

Local attractions

Showa Memorial Park is a national government park in Akishima and Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan. It is the largest park in the Tokyo area, covering 1,653,000 square meters. Formerly a Japanese military airbase and in the postwar era operated by the US military, Tac ...

, 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 airfield in the city of Tachikawa, the western part of Tokyo, Japan. Currently under the administration of the Ministry of Defense, it has also served as the civil aviation with Japan's first scheduled air service. History Origins Tach ...

in Tachikawa and neighboring

. * Tachikawa Velodrome

Sister city relations

* -

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and 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 cen ...

, USA since December 23, 1959

References

External links

Tachikawa City Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Tokyo Western Tokyo