Akishima, Tokyo

Akishima is located on the left bank of the Tama River, about 35 kilometers west of central Tokyo. The Tamagawa Aqueduct flows in the northern part of the city. The city area generally slopes gently from northwest to southeast toward the Tama River, which flows to the south of the city. The altitude of the city area is 170.72 meters above sea level at the highest point and 76.68 meters at the lowest point. With the JR East Ome Line running east to west through the city as a boundary, housing estates, industrial parks, golf courses, and the Showa Memorial Park occupy a large area in the north. In the south, residential areas occupy a large proportion of them city area.

Akishima has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Akishima is 13.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1998 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 2.5 °C.[2]

Per Japanese census data,[3] the population of Akishima has increased steadily for a century.

The area of present-day Akishima was part of ancient Musashi Province, and a center for sericulture. In the post–Meiji Restoration cadastral reform of July 22, 1878, the area became part of Kitatama District in Kanagawa Prefecture. Haiji, Nakagami, and Sotoyatsu villages were created on April 1, 1889, with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. The entire district was transferred to the control of Tokyo Metropolis on April 1, 1893. The latter two villages merged on January 1, 1928, to form Shōwa Village. Following the dedication of Tachikawa Airfield, which was established in 1922, the surrounding area developed in the 1930s with large-scale munitions factories for aircraft manufacturing for the Imperial Japanese Army.

Shōwa was elevated to town status on January 1, 1941, and through merger with the village of Haiji on May 1, 1954, became the city of Akishima. The name comes from the kun'yomi of the first kanji in the name of the former town of Shōwa, and the on'yomi of the second kanji in the name of the former village of Haijima.

Akishima has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 22 members. Akishima contributes one member to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Tokyo 25th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Akishima was developed as an industrial suburb of Tokyo, and still has large factories operated by Hoya Corporation, JEOL, Japan Aviation Electronics, Fostex, Shōwa Aircraft Industry Co., and others. The city is also a bedroom community for the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Akishima has seven public elementary schools and six public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education. The city also has one private elementary school, one private middle school and one private high school.

• Showa Memorial Park
• Tamagawa Aqueduct
• Hajima Daishi Buddhist temple

• Aja Kong, professional wrestler
• Takao Koyama, screenwriter and novelist
• Satoshi Koizumi, professional soccer player

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Akishima, Tokyo.

• Akishima City Official Website Archived 2008-09-13 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)