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 Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , 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 344,194 in 163,675 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical ...

of 4800 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Tokorozawa is located in the central part of 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 ...

in southern Saitama, about 30 km west of central Tokyo. Tokorozawa can be considered part of the greater Tokyo area; its proximity to the latter and lower housing costs make it a popular

bedroom community 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 ...

. The Higashikawa and Yanasegawa rivers that flow from the Sayama Hills flow to the eastern part of the city, and finally reach the Arakawa River. The Yamaguchi Reservoir (commonly known as Lake Sayama) is mostly located within city boundaries; Lake Tama also touches the south-western part of the city. The area around Tokorozawa Station's west exit is built up as a shopping district with several department stores. Prope Street is a popular shopping arcade.

Surrounding municipalities

* Saitama Prefecture ** Iruma ** Niiza **

Sayama is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 149,826 in 69,859 households and a population density of 3100 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Sayama is located in south-centr ...

** Kawagoe ** Miyoshi *

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

** Kiyose ** Higashimurayama ** Higashiyamato **

Musashimurayama is a city located in the western side of Tokyo, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 72,021 in 32,234 households, and a population density of 4,700 people per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Musashimurayama is located ...

Mizuho Mizuho () literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. It was also an ancient name of Japan. It might refer to: Places * Mizuho, Gifu, a city in Gifu * Mizuho, Tokyo, a town in Tokyo * Mizuho Plateau in A ...

Climate

Tokorozawa has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Tokorozawa is 14.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1647 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Tokorozawa has recently plateaued after several decades of strong growth.

History

Archaeological research has shown that the vicinity of Tokorozawa was settled from about 20,000 years ago. Tokorozawa Shinmei Shrine has a traditional establishment of 110 AD. Hatogamine Hachiman Shrine is believed to date from 921 AD. During the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

, the

Kamakura Kaidō is the generic name of a great number of roads built during the Kamakura period which, from all directions, converged on the military capital of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei The term itself however was created pr ...

ran through the area and the area was host to a series of battles fought in May 1333 that were part of the Genko War that ultimately ended the

Kamakura Shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no ...

. These include the 1333 Battle of Kotesashi and the Battle of Kumegawa. Kotesashi was again the site of another battle nineteen years later. During the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

(1603–1867) the area's major industry was

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, '' Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively stud ...

. It was also an important trading center, being located at the intersection of roads connecting Edo with the towns of Hachioji, Chichibu, Kawagoe and

Fuchu Fuchu, King of Chu (), clan name Xiong, () was from 227 to 223 BC the last king of the state of Chu during the late Warring States period of ancient China (though sources argue that Lord Changping was the last king of Chu). Fuchu was his give ...

. The town of Tokorozawa was created within Iruma District, Saitama with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Tokorozawa became the site of Japan's first air base and air service academy in 1911. The base was used through the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and fell under the control of the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

after the war. The US returned most of its property in Tokorozawa to Japan in 1971, but retains a communications facility in the city which is operated by the

374th Airlift Wing The 374th Airlift Wing is a unit of the United States Air Force assigned to Fifth Air Force. It is stationed at Yokota Air Base, Japan. It is part of Pacific Air Forces. The 374th Airlift Wing is the only airlift wing in PACAF and provides airl ...

of the

Fifth Air Force The Fifth Air Force (5 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan. It is the U.S. Air Force's oldest continuously serving Numbered Air Force. The organizat ...

, based at

Yokota Air Base , is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and United States Air Force (USAF) base in the Tama Area, or Western Tokyo. It occupies portions of Akishima, Fussa, Hamura, Mizuho, Musashimurayama, and Tachikawa. The base houses 14,000 perso ...

to the southwest. The facility houses antennas for communications with USAF aircraft in the region. Much of the land returned to Japan has been converted into the public Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park. Tokorozawa was elevated to city status on November 3, 1950. In 1955, Tokorozawa annexed the neighboring villages of Yanase and Mikajima, and assumed its present boundaries. The development of large scale public housing and railroad development led to a rapid population increase in the 1960s. Tokorozawa was the site of the Clay pigeon shooting event in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Tokorozawa was designated as a special city with increased local autonomy in 2002. It currently meets the conditions to be designated as a

core city In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central city ...

but has yet to receive this designation.

Government

Tokorozawa 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 multi ...

city council of 34 members. Tokorozawa contributes four members to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Saitama 8th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy

Public sector

Tokorozawa houses the Tokyo Area Control Center, which controls airspace in the Kantō, Jōetsu, Tōhoku, Chūbu, and Hokuriku regions and a portion of the Kansai region.

Private sector

Tokorozawa is the headquarters of Seibu Holdings, the parent company of

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 ...

and Tokorozawa Station forms a hub in the Seibu Railway network which serves western Tokyo and southern Saitama. Tokorozawa is at the intersection of Seibu's two main lines, which respectively run to

Ikebukuro Station Ikebukuro Station ( ja, 池袋駅, ) is a major railway station located in the Ikebukuro district of Toshima, Tokyo, Japan, shared by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Tokyo subway operator Tokyo Metro, and the two private railway operato ...

and

Seibu Shinjuku Station is a railway station in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Seibu Railway. It is the terminus of the 47.5 km (30 mile) Seibu Shinjuku Line, which extends to in Saitama Prefecture. The station is located appr ...

in central Tokyo. Several Seibu group companies, including its railway and bus divisions, are headquartered in the vicinity of Tokorozawa Station. Seibu owns an amusement park, baseball stadium ( Seibu Prince Dome) and velodrome (

Seibu-en Velodrome 250px, Seibu-en Velodrome is a velodrome located in Tokorozawa, Saitama that conducts pari-mutuel Keirin racing - one of Japan's four authorized where gambling is permitted. Its Keirin identification number for betting purposes is 26# (26 sharp) ...

) in the "Seibu-en" district near Lake Tama in the southwestern corner of the city. Citizen Holdings operates a watch factory in Tokorozawa.

Education

* Akikusa Gakuen Junior College *

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

– Tokorozawa campus *College of Art,

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

– Tokorozawa campus *Tokorozawa has 32 public elementary schools and 15 public middle schools operated by the city government, and six public high schools operated by the . In addition the prefecture also operates two special education schools for the handicapped. Prefectural high schools: * * * * * *

Transportation

Railway

JR East –

Musashino Line The is a railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It links Tsurumi Station in Yokohama with Nishi-Funabashi Station in Chiba Prefecture, forming a 100.6 km unclosed loop around central Tokyo. Passenger operations ...

* Higashi-Tokorozawa Station SeibuRailway mark

Seibu Ikebukuro Line The is a railway line of the Japanese private railway operator Seibu Railway. It originates at Ikebukuro Station, a large railway junction in north-western Tokyo, extending to northwest suburbs as far as Tokorozawa, Saitama, and nominally ter ...

* - - -

Seibu Railway -

Seibu Shinjuku Line The is a Japanese railway line owned by the private railway operator Seibu Railway, connecting Seibu Shinjuku Station in Shinjuku, Tokyo with Hon-Kawagoe Station in Kawagoe, Saitama. The Shinjuku Line is one of two main lines of the Seibu Ra ...

* - -

Seibu Railway - Seibu Sayama Line * - - SeibuRailway mark

Seibu Railway - Seibu Yamaguchi Line * -

Highway

* *

Twin towns and sister cities

Tokorozawa is twinned with: * Decatur, Illinois, United States from May 6, 1966 *

Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

, China from April 20, 1992 *

Anyang, Gyeonggi Anyang () is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. With a population of approximately 600,000, it is the 20th largest city in South Korea. It is a satellite city of Seoul and located approximately so ...

, Republic of Korea from April 17, 1998

Local attractions

Professional sports teams

Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway ...

(baseball,

Belluna Dome (official name: ) is a baseball stadium located in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan. It is home to the Saitama Seibu Lions, a professional baseball team. The stadium has a roof over the field and the stands, like other indoor ballparks. However, it la ...

) * Saitama Broncos (basketball, Tokorozawa Municipal Stadium)

General points of interest

: home of the Seibu Lions * Seibu-en: amusement park *

Ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...

Slope: indoor ski and snowboard resort * Tokorozawa Aviation Museum: the location of Japan's first airfield. * Tokorozawa Civic Cultural Centre Muse: public auditorium and concert hall * Arahata Fuji Shrine: Shinto Shrine that is a scale reproduction of Mount Fuji offering views of the latter * Hachikokuyama: nature park famous for being the inspiration of Totoro * Kurosuke no ie: office of Totoro fund *

Futagoyama stable was a stable of sumo wrestlers, created in 2004 when Takanohana Kōji took over the running of Futagoyama stable from his father Takanohana Kenshi. Formerly of the Nishonoseki '' ichimon'' or group of stables, it became the leader of a breaka ...

: stable of professional sumo wrestlers * Kadokawa Culture Museum: New multiple museum building designed by

Kengo Kuma is a Japanese architect and professor in the Department of Architecture (Graduate School of Engineering) at the University of Tokyo. Frequently compared to contemporaries Shigeru Ban and Kazuyo Sejima, Kuma is also noted for his prolific writin ...

at Tokorozawa Sakura Town. It features the permanent outdoor art instillation " Resonating Life in the Acorn Forest" by

TeamLab OnlyOffice (formerly TeamLab), stylized as ONLYOFFICE, is a free software office suite developed by Ascensio System SIA, a subsidiary of "New Communication Technologies", a company from Russia, but headquartered in Riga, Latvia. In Russian marke ...

as well as a double-height 8 meter tall library housing fifty thousand plus volumes which can morph into a ‘bookshelf theater’ via

projection mapping Projection mapping, similar to video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a video projection, projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into display surfaces for video projection. The objects may be complex industr ...

Historical points of interest

* Battle of Kotesashi: site of an important battle during the Genko War * Tokorozawa Shinmei Shrine: believed to have been founded in the second century A.D. * Shinko-ji: A Buddhist temple that was established during the

* Waterfall Castle: a

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 ...

castle ruin * Hatogamine Hachiman Shrine: an ancient Shinto shrine including a 13th-century main shrine building * Sayama Fudōson: important temple of

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

* Konjoin: "Yamaguchi Kanon" Since 810-824

Events

The Tokorozawa

Matsuri Japanese festivals are traditional festive occasions often celebrated with dance and music in Japan. Many festivals have their roots in traditional Chinese festivals, but have undergone extensive changes over time to have little resemblance ...

is a festival held each year in October and features traditional Japanese parade floats ( ''

mikoshi A is a sacred religious palanquin (also translated as portable Shinto shrine). Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when ...

'' ), ''

taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming ...

'' drums, and samba dancers. A two-day festival featuring music, cultural and sports exhibitions, community group activities and food booths takes place in late October in Kokukoen Park on the grounds of the former airfield. A similar 1-day festival, the Shimin Bunka Fair, takes place in early April in the park. The city and local business community decorates the west side of Tokorozawa station with holiday lights from early December through mid March, and separate lighting ceremonies featuring local musicians, politicians, and sports figures are conducted for various portions of the lighted areas.

Notable people from Tokorozawa

* Bokuzen Hidari (1894–1971), actor born in Kotesashi Village (which was absorbed into Tokorozawa) * George Tokoro (Real Name: Takayuki Haga,

Nihongo is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been m ...

: 芳賀隆之, ''Haga Takayuki''), comedian, TV personality, singer-songwriter and essayist *

Yoshiharu Habu is a professional shogi player and a chess FIDE Master. His master is Tatsuya Futakami. He is the only person to simultaneously hold seven major professional shogi titles at the same time and is also the only person to qualify as a lifetime tit ...

, professional shogi player *

Toshiaki Kasuga is a Japanese comedian best known as the '' boke'' half of the comedy duo Audrey alongside Masayasu Wakabayashi. On stage, he usually wears a pink vest and white pants. Aside from comedy, he is also known for his participation in sporting event ...

, comedian * Hokutōfuji Daiki, sumo wrestler (Real Name: Daiki Nakamura,

: 中村大輝, ''Nakamura Daiki'') *

Chisato Okai (born June 21, 1994, in Saitama, Japan) is a former Japanese pop singer, actress, model, and television personality. She first gained recognition when she joined Hello! Project Kids and later became one of the main vocalists of the Japanese id ...

Japanese idol An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements ...

and former member of the idol group C-ute * Naoto,

, dancer, rapper and member of the groups Exile and

Sandaime J Soul Brothers , formerly simply J Soul Brothers and stylized as Sandaime J Soul Brothers from Exile Tribe, are a J-pop vocal and dance group formed by Exile ex-leader and producer Hiroyuki Igarashi in Japan in 1991. Sandaime J Soul Brothers are managed by Hiroy ...

(Real Name: Naoto Kataoka,

: 片岡直人, ''Kataoka Naoto'') * Yoshiji Soeno, Japanese karateka and former kickboxer (

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

)

Tokorozawa in popular culture

*Tokorozawa inspired the setting for the animated film ''

My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. The film—which stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi—tells the story o ...

'' (''Tonari no Totoro'').Totoro
/ref> *In the light novel series

Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the then-near future and focuses on protagonists Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki as they play through various vir ...

, much of the story is based in Tokorozawa. *Scenes in the Japanese film '' Shall We Dance?'' were set in Tokorozawa. The

's Sayamagaoka Station features in the film. *Scenes in the Japanese horror film '' Ju-on'' were filmed in Tokorozawa. The area around Tokorozawa Station is identifiable.

References

External links

*
Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Saitama Prefecture