Mitaka, Tokyo

Mitaka is located on the Kantō Plain, just outside the 23 special wards of Tokyo Metropolis, which are on its eastern borders. The Tamagawa Aqueduct canal, which runs alongside Mitaka station, has an important place in history, built in 1653 to feed the local metropolis. It is also the place where novelist Osamu Dazai died by suicide in 1948. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is located in Mitaka.

Per Japanese census data,[4] the population of Mitaka increased rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1994 there were 2,585 foreign residents in Mitaka, including 726 from North and South Korea, 713 from China, 441 from the United States, 114 from the Philippines, and 108 from the United Kingdom. Of all municipalities in Japan, Mitaka had the highest proportion of Chinese returnees.[5]

The area of present-day Mitaka was part of ancient Musashi Province. In the post-Meiji Restoration cadastral reform of 22 July 1878, the area became part of Kitatama District in Kanagawa Prefecture. The village of Mitaka was created on 1 April 1889 with the establishment of modern municipalities law. Kitatama District was transferred to the administrative control of Tokyo Metropolis on 1 April 1893. Mitaka was raised to town status in 1940. In 1949, the Mitaka incident, one of a series of unexplained fatal train accidents around the same period of time, occurred at Mitaka Station.[6] Mitaka City was officially founded on 3 November 1950. A motion to merge with neighboring Musashino City failed in 1955 by only a single vote in the Mitaka city assembly.

Mitaka has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 28 members. Mitaka contributes two members to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Tokyo 22nd district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Mitaka is primarily a bedroom community for Tokyo. A number of animation studios, including Pierrot,[7] Silver Link. and Telecom Animation Film[8] have their corporate headquarters in Mitaka. A short-lived video game manufacturer TAD Corporation was founded and headquartered in the same location.[9][10][11] Subaru Tecnica International has its headquarters in Mitaka.[12]

The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka

• Ghibli Museum
• Inokashira Park
• Nogawa Park
• Yuzo Yamamoto Memorial Museum

• Ryo Kimura, actor
• Yūko Tsushima, author, fiction writer, essayist and critic
• Satoshi Ohno, singer, actor, and member of Arashi
• Eiji Wentz, singer, actor, entertainer, and member of the singer-songwriter duo WaT
• Tsubasa Honda, actress, model
• Hiroki Azuma, cultural critic, novelist, and philosopher
• Yoshikazu Tanaka, businessman, founder of GREE, Inc.
• Masahiro Chono, professional wrestler (originally from Seattle, Washington)

• Mitaka incident
• Inokashira Park dismemberment incident

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mitaka, Tokyo.

• Mitaka City Official Website (in Japanese)