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 ...

. It is one of 30 municipalities in the western portion of Tokyo known as the

Tama Area Western Tokyo, known as the , or locally, in the Tokyo Metropolis consists of 30 ordinary municipalities (cities (市 shi), towns (町 machi) and one village (村 mura)), unlike the eastern part which consists of 23 special wards. Before it w ...

. , 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 83,218, 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 13,000 persons per km². The total area of the city is . It is the smallest administrative city in Tokyo Metropolis both in area and population, and the second smallest in terms of area in the nation.

Geography

Komae is nestled between 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 ...

to the southwest, and the much smaller Nogawa River to the north and east which flows near its boundaries with

Chōfu is a Cities of Japan, city in the western side of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 238,087, and a population density of 11,000 per km2. the total area of the city is . Geography Chōfu is approximately ...

city and Setagaya Ward. It is mostly flat. It is a small municipality; its boundaries fit within a circle of 2 km radius centred on the city hall. It is essentially a residential suburb of Tokyo which urbanised rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, with most of the working population commuting to central Tokyo. There are several neighbourhood shopping areas, mainly around the train stations. The City Hall is located near Komae Station.

Surrounding municipalities

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 ...

* Kawasaki

Setagaya is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood and administrative district within the ward. Its official bird is the azure-winged magpie, its flower is the fringed orchid, and its tree is the '' Ze ...

Climate

Komae 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 Komae is 14.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1647 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Komae increased rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s and has continued to grow at a slower rate since then.

History

The city's name is thought to originate from the word ''koma'', referring to migrants, especially

Goguryeo Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) (; ; Old Korean: Guryeo) also later known as Goryeo (; ; Middle Korean: 고ᇢ롕〮, ''kwòwlyéy''), was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korea, Korean Peninsula an ...

from the

Korean peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

who settled here around the 5th century AD. Numerous ''

kofun are megalithic tombs or tumulus, tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century AD.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞 ...

'' burial mounds are located within the city borders. The area of present-day Komae 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. ...

. 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 Minamitama District in

. The town of Komae was created on April 1, 1889, with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. Minamitama District was transferred to the administrative control of Tokyo Metropolis on April 1, 1893. Odakyu Railways's Odawara line was constructed through Komae in 1926, linking it with

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

in central Tokyo. Expanding population led to Komae being upgraded to the status of a town in 1952, and to a city on October 1, 1970. On September 1, 1974,

's levee failed during a

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

, and 19 houses were destroyed by torrential flooding. The riverbanks have now been strengthened. A small memorial stands at the location of the levee failure.

Government

Komae 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 26 members. The current mayor is Kunihiko Takahashi, an independent heading a coalition of the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...

with the

Liberal Democratic Party of Japan The , frequently abbreviated to LDP, the Lib Dems, or , is a major conservativeThe Liberal Democratic Party is widely described as conservative: * * * * * and Japanese nationalism, nationalistSources describing the LDP as nationalist: * ...

and the

Komeito , formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan founded by the leader of Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, in 1964. It is generally considered centrist and socially conservative. Since 2012, i ...

, which ousted long-term

Japanese Communist Party The is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest political party in the country. It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired ...

mayor Yutaka Yano in 2012. Komae, together with the city of Chōfu, contributes three members to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Tokyo 26th 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 ...

Education

The one public high school, Komae High School, is 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 ...

. Komae has six public elementary schools and four junior high schools schools operated by the city. Public junior high schools: * Komae No. 1 (狛江第一中学校) * Komae No. 2 ( 狛江第二中学校) * Komae No. 3 (狛江第三中学校) * Komae No. 4 ( 狛江第四中学校) Public elementary schools: * Izumi (和泉小学校) * Komae No. 1 (狛江第一小学校) * Komae No. 3 ( 狛江第三小学校) * Komae No. 5 (狛江第五小学校) * Komae No. 6 ( 狛江第六小学校) * Midorino (緑野小学校)

Transportation

Railway

Odakyu Electric Railway , commonly known as Odakyū, is a major railway company based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for its '' Romancecar'' series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone. The Odakyu Electric Railway Company f ...

–

Odakyū Odawara Line The is the main line of Japanese private railway operator Odakyu Electric Railway. It extends from Shinjuku Station, Shinjuku in central Tokyo through the southwest suburbs to the city of Odawara, Kanagawa, Odawara, the gateway to Hakone in Ka ...

* - (Some areas in the north of the city have better access to

Keiō Line The is a railway line in western Tokyo, Japan, owned by the private railway operator Keiō Corporation. It connects Shinjuku, Tokyo, with the suburban city of Hachiōji. The Keiō Line is part of a network with interchanges and through run ...

stations in neighbouring

city.)

Highway

*Komae is not served by any national highways or expressways.

Local attractions

Annual events in Komae include a raft-race on Tama River every July, and a city fair in mid-November. The town has a group of festival mascots called Komarangers; their purpose is to cheer up the citizens of the town. They come in five colors: red, blue, green, yellow, and pink.

Notable people from Komae

Sadao Araki Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II. As one of the principal nationalist right-wing political theorists in the Empire of Japan, he was regarded as the leader of the radical faction within the polit ...

. Army general and pre-war rightwing politician *

Sumire Haruno (born 15 December 1972) is a Japanese actress from Komae, Tokyo, a former member of Takarazuka Revue, specializing in otokoyaku. She joined the revue in 1991, became the top star of Flower Troupe in 2002 and resigned from the company in 2007. He ...

. Takarazuka actress

References

External links

*
Komae City Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Tokyo Western Tokyo