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

west West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

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 72,021 in 32,234 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 4,700 people per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Musashimurayama is located in north-central

, bordered by

Saitama Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (January 1, 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 Square kilometre, km2 ( ...

to the north. Upstream tributaries of the Arakawa River and

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 ...

flow through the city. The Sayama Hills run from west to east in the northern part of the city. The south side of the hill is on the western edge of the

Musashino Plateau The , also translated from Japanese as Musashino Platform and also named Musashino Region, is a large tableland that sits between the Arakawa and Tama rivers in the Kantō region of Honshu, Japan. The plateau consists of an alluvial fan formed ...

Surrounding municipalities

Tokorozawa is a Cities of Japan, city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 343,298 in 168,939 households and a population density of 4761 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Tokorozawa is ...

* Fussa * Higashiyamato * Mizuho *

Tachikawa file:Autumn colors in Showa memorial park.jpg, 250px, Showa Memorial Park is a Cities of Japan, city located in the western Tokyo, western portion of the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 184,383 in 93,428 househ ...

Climate

Musashimurayama 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 Musashimurayama is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Musashimurayama increased rapidly in the postwar decades but the rate of growth has slowed considerably in recent years.

History

The area of present-day Musashimurayama 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

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, 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 feu ...

, the area was organized into four villages within 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 ...

. Kitatama District was transferred to the administrative control of Tokyo Metropolis on April 1, 1893. The village of Murayama was created on April 1, 1917 and was elevated to town status on November 3, 1954. The population of the town grew extremely rapidly in the 1960s with the development of

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

. Murayama was elevated to city status on November 3, 1970 and was named Musashimurayama.

Government

Musashimurayama 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 20 members. Musashimurayama, together with the cities of Higashiyamato and Higashimurayama, contributes three members to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Tokyo 20th 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

The area of Musashimurayama was traditionally a center for

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

textile production. The area remains largely agricultural, notably horticulture and the growing of tea, although a significant portion of the population commutes to downtown

Tokyo 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 ...

. Musashimurayama was the location of a

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

automobile assembly plant, originally opened in 1962 by the

Prince Motor Company The Prince Motor Company (Japanese language, Japanese: ) was an automobile manufacturer, automobile marque from Japan which eventually merged into Nissan in 1966. It began as the Tachikawa Aircraft Company, a manufacturer of various airplanes fo ...

. It closed in March 2001 as part of the Nissan Revival Plan announced in 1999. It is now a museum called Carest Murayama, next to the Aeon Mall Musashi Murayama Megamall occupying a 213,252 square foot facility Shinkawa, now known as Yamaha Robotics Holdings, is a leading manufacturer of precision robots for semiconductor manufacturing. The head office and factory are in the city.

Education

Tokyo Keizai University (Tokyo University of Economics) is a private university in Kokubunji, Tokyo, Kokubunji, Tokyo, Japan. Overview It has campuses at the cities of Kokubunji, Tokyo, Kokubunji and Musashimurayama, Tokyo, Musashimurayama. The predecessor of the sch ...

- Musashimurayama campus The city has three public high schools 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 ...

. * * Tokyo Metropolis also operates one special education school for the handicapped. Musashimurayama has eight public elementary schools and four public junior high schools, and two combined public elementary/junior high schools operated by the city government. Municipal combined elementary and junior high schools: * Dainan Gakuen (大南学園) - No. 7 Elementary School (第七小学校) and No. 4 Junior High School (第四中学校) * Murayama Gakuen (村山学園) Municipal junior high schools: * No. 1 (第一中学校) * No. 3 (第三中学校) * No. 5 (第五中学校) Municipal elementary schools: * No. 1 (第一小学校) * No. 2 (第二小学校) * No. 3 (第三小学校) * No. 8 (第八小学校) * No. 9 (第九小学校) * No. 10 (第十小学校) * Raizuka (雷塚小学校) The United States

Department of Defense Education Activity The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is a federal school system headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, responsible for planning, directing, coordinating, and managing prekindergarten through 12th grade educational programs on beh ...

(DoDEA) operates the following schools on Yokota Air Base and in the municipality of Musashimurayama for children of United States military personnel: * Joan K. Mendel Elementary School For secondary levels, U.S. military-dependent children are directed to Yokota Middle School and Yokota High School, both on base, but in Fussa instead of Musashimurayama. Private schools: *

Transportation

Railway

*Musashimurayama is not served by any passenger rail services.

Highway

*Musashimurayama is not served by any expressways or

national highways National Highways (NH), formerly Highways England and before that the Highways Agency, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in Eng ...

Sister cities

Sakae, Nagano, Japan

Notable people

Gedo Gedo (, , , or ''Ghedu'') is an administrative region ('' gobol'') in Jubaland, southern Somalia. Its regional capital is Garbahaarreey. The region was formed during 1974 and is bordered by the Ogaden in Ethiopia, the North Eastern Province ...

(Real Name: Keiji Takayama,

Nihongo is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. ...

: 高山圭司, ''Takayama Keiji''), Japanese professional wrestler and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

(

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...

) * Go Hatano, Japanese football player ( FC Tokyo,

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

) * Hidekazu Nagai, Japanese comedian and

owarai is a broad word used to describe Japanese comedy as seen on television. The word ''owarai'' is the Honorific speech in Japanese#Honorific prefixes, honorific form of the word ''warai'' (by adding o- prefix), meaning "a laugh" or "a smile". '' ...

presenter * Kenji Osawa, former Japanese mixed martial artist *

Masahiro Sakurai is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the ''Kirby (series), Kirby'' and ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of ''Meteos'' in 2005 and directed '' ...

, Japanese video game director,

game designer Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

(

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Lofts, a building in Houston, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby Ho ...

, Super Smash Bros. and Kid Icarus: Uprising) * Yuko Suzuki, Japanese

volleyball player {{short description, none This is a list of lists of volleyball players, and of notable examples in fiction. Lists of notable players * List of international volleyball players * List of American beach volleyball players * List of Chinese volleyb ...

( Denso Airybees, V.League 1)

References

External links

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