| Kawasaki | |
| Official Name: | Kawasaki City |
| Settlement Type: | Designated city |
| Image Map1: | Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture Ja.svg |
| Map Caption1: | Location of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture |
| Pushpin Map: | Japan |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | |
| Coordinates: | 35.5167°N 181°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Japan |
| Subdivision Type1: | Region |
| Subdivision Name1: | Kantō |
| Subdivision Type2: | Prefecture |
| Subdivision Name2: | Kanagawa Prefecture |
| Established Title: | First official recorded |
| Established Date: | late 4th century |
| Established Title2: | City Settled |
| Established Date2: | July 1, 1924 |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Norihiko Fukuda |
| Area Total Km2: | 143.01 |
| Population Total: | 1,531,646 |
| Population As Of: | January 1, 2020 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone1: | Japan Standard Time |
| Utc Offset1: | +9 |
| Blank Name Sec1: | City Symbols |
| Blank1 Name Sec1: | - Tree |
| Blank1 Info Sec1: | Camellia |
| Blank2 Name Sec1: | - Flower |
| Blank2 Info Sec1: | Azalea |
| Blank Name Sec2: | Phone number |
| Blank Info Sec2: | 044-200-2111 |
| Blank1 Name Sec2: | Address |
| Blank1 Info Sec2: | 1 Miyamoto-chō, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken 210-8577 |
, pronounced as /ja/; is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of the Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the eighth most populated city in Japan (including the Tokyo Metropolitan Area).[1]
, the city has an estimated population of 1,503,690, with 716,470 households,[1] and a population density of 10,000 persons per km2. Kawasaki is the only city in Japan with more than one million inhabitants that is not a prefectural capital. The total area is 142.7km2.
Archaeological evidence from the Japanese Paleolithic and Jōmon period can only be found in the northwest Tama Hills. The course of the Tama and the coast of the Bay of Tokyo have also changed in historical times, so that large parts of the urban area are geologically young.
With the introduction of the Ritsuryō legal system, the area came to the Musashi Province in the 7th century. In the Nara period, the center of the Tachibana district was probably in the area of today's Takatsu district. Since the Heian period, the domain of the Inage clan has expanded here. Around the Heiken-ji Buddhist temple (better known as Kawasaki-Daishi), founded in 1128, a monzen-machi, a busy district for the supply of pilgrims, soon emerged. Between the Kamakura period and Sengoku period, smaller feudal lords ruled the area until it finally came under the control of the Later Hōjō clan.
In 1611, Koizumi Jidayū had Nikaryō Yōsui built, a canal system on the right bank of the Tama for irrigating the fields, which in some cases still runs through the densely built-up city. On the long-distance Kaidō roads Tōkaidō and Nakaharakaidō built by Edo-Bakufu, stations were built in the area of what would later become Kawasaki, which increased its importance. The Kawasaki station (Kawasaki-juku, near today's Kawasaki station) on the Tōkaidō was not officially recognized until 1623 as the last of the 53 Tōkaidō stations. The Bakufu let the bridges over the Tama collapse and there were ferry connections to nearby Edo in several places in today's Kawasaki, which laid the foundation for the development of the city.
The rapid urbanization of the area, which continues to this day, began in the Meiji and Taishō eras. In 1872, Kawasaki Station was established on the Tōkaidō Main Line which was Japan's first railway line.[2] In 1889, the city (machi) Kawasaki in the district (gun) Tachibana was created according to the Japanese municipal system introduced the year before. In 1912 the border between Kanagawa and Tokyo prefectures was established as the Tama River. On July 1, 1924, the independent city (shi-) of Kawasaki with 48,394 inhabitants was formed through a merger with the city of Daishi (formerly Daishigawara) and the village of Miyuki.[3]
People from the Korean peninsula were made to work in the industrial sector in the city,[4] working on railways construction, or rebuilding roads damaged by U.S. bombings towards the end of WWII.[5] People from Okinawa were also coming to the city, and in 1924, the oldest Okinawans Association in Japan was founded in Kawasaki.[6] [7]
As part of World War II, the city was bombed three times by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between April 1945 and July 1945. The most serious attack was an area bombing with Napalm bombs on April 15, 1945. The attacks destroyed around 35% of the urban area and claimed 1,520 dead and 8,759 injured. The attacks burned down 9.3 km2 of the city (see Bombing of Tokyo). Kawasaki became a target of the first mainland bombing by the US military in 1942, followed by multiple bombings, partly due to the city's heavy and chemical industrial complex supplying the war efforts in Asia and the Pacific.[8]
On April 15, 1945, large parts of the area around the train station and the industrial area at the port were destroyed by air raids. Since the 1950s, residential areas for commuters have been created in the northeastern part of the city, which are connected directly to the centers of Tokyo by new railway lines. On April 1, 1972, Kawasaki became a decree-designated city (seirei shitei toshi) with 5 districts. 1973 the population exceeded the million mark. In 1982 the new districts of Miyamae and Asao were created by splitting off from the districts of Takatsu and Tama. In the course of deindustrialization, industrial areas have recently been increasingly converted into residential areas (mostly Multi-family residential), so that a further increase in population density can be expected.
According, to the Köppen Climate Classification, it is a humid subtropical climate (Cfa).
Kawasaki is located on the right bank of the Tama River, which flows into the Tokyo Bay here. The city lies like a narrow band between Tokyo in the northeast and Yokohama in the southwest. The city connects the two major cities and is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, the largest and most densely populated urban areas in the world.
The eastern area along the coast of Tokyo Bay is a densely populated industrial zone, part of the Keihin Industrial Zone. In contrast, the western districts in the Tama Hills consist largely of residential areas for commuters in the Tokyo / Yokohama region.
Kawasaki has seven wards (ku):
| Name | Color | Map of Kawasaki | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rōmaji | Kanji | |||
| 1 | Asao-ku | 麻生区 | Leaf green | |
| 2 | Kawasaki-ku (administrative center) | 川崎区 | Lime green | |
| 3 | Miyamae-ku | 宮前区 | Orange | |
| 4 | Nakahara-ku | 中原区 | Blue | |
| 5 | Saiwai-ku | 幸区 | Teal | |
| 6 | Takatsu-ku | 高津区 | Purple | |
| 7 | Tama-ku | 多摩区 | Pink | |
In the northeast, Kawasaki borders the Special wards of Tokyo (starting at Tokyo Bay) Ōta and Setagaya, in the northwest the cities (-shi) belonging to Tokyo Prefecture (-shi) Komae, Chofu, Machida, Inagi, Tama enclose the place. The opposite southwest side is entirely occupied by the districts of Tsurumi, Kōhoku, Tsuzuki and Aoba in the city of Yokohama. With the completion of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, the city of Kisarazu, located on the opposite side of the Tokyo Bay in Chiba Prefecture, also became a neighbor in December 1997.
Two rivers cross the urban area. The Tama unites with the tributaries Misawa, Yamashita, Gotanda, Nikaryō main river and Hirase; Katahira, Asao, Shimpukuji, Arima, E, Shibu and Yagami flow into the Tsurumi.
The land on the coast of the city is crossed by a network of canals (Tama Canal, Suehiro Canal, Chidori Canal, Yakō Canal, Daishi Canal, Mizue Canal, Shiohama Canal, Iriesaki Canal, Asano Canal, Ikegami Canal, Minami-Watarida Canal, Tanabe Canal, Shiraishi Canal and the Sakai Canal). In addition, the historic Nikaryō Yōsui canal still exists in the hinterland.
Per Japanese census data,[9] the population of Kawasaki has seen sustained growth over the past 70 years.
Kawasaki is governed by Mayor Norihiko Fukuda, an independent elected on 27 October 2013.[10] The city assembly has 63 elected members. Mayor Fukuda was re-elected to a second term in office on 22 October 2017 with support from LDP and Kōmeitō against former municipal MP Akiko Yoshizawa and JCP-supported former primary school teacher Hirokazu Ichiko.[11] [12]
The 60-member city parliament of Kawasaki was re-elected in the unified elections in April 2023. The LDP won 17 seats and is the largest party in the assembly.[13]
Kawasaki was in June 2008 the second Japanese "government-designated city" (seirei shitei toshi) after Hiroshima, which allowed foreigners to participate in municipal referendums.[14]
In the 105-member prefectural parliament of Kanagawa, the seven districts of Kawasaki serve as constituencies, electing 18 deputies in total.[15] [16]
For the House of Representatives (Japan), Kawasaki comprises the constituencies Kanagawa 9 (Tama and Asao wards), 10 (Kawasaki and Saiwai wards) and 18 (Nakahara and Takatsu wards) and 19 (Miyamae ward, with Tsuzuki ward, Yokohama), following changes since the last general election in 2021.[17] In the 2021 election, the three seats went unchanged to Liberal Democrats Kazunori Tanaka and Daishirō Yamagiwa, and ex-Democrat Hirofumi Ryū of the Constitutional Democratic Party.[18]
| Name | Entered office | Left office | ||
| 1 | Taisuke Ishii (石井泰助) | October 18, 1924 | March 2, 1929 | |
| 2 | Kahei Shundo (春藤嘉平) | March 11, 1929 | November 11, 1930 | |
| 3 | Fumisuke Kudara (百済文輔) | August 22, 1931 | June 27, 1932 | |
| 4 | Shigeharu Nakaya (中屋重治) | August 13, 1932 | March 27, 1935 | |
| 5 | Ichiro Shibatsuji (芝辻一郎) | September 14, 1935 | September 13, 1939 | |
| 6 | Hachiro Murai (村井八郎) | May 13, 1940 | May 12, 1944 | |
| 7 | Kiyoo Ebe (江辺清夫) | May 23, 1944 | June 10, 1946 | |
| 8-14 | Fujitaro Kanasashi (金刺不二太郎) | August 1, 1946 | April 29, 1971 | |
| 15-19 | Saburo Itoh (伊藤三郎) | April 30, 1971 | October 18, 1989 | |
| 20-22 | Kiyoshi Takahashi (高橋清) | November 20, 1989 | November 18, 2001 | |
| 23-25 | Takao Abe (阿部孝夫) | November 19, 2001 | November 18, 2013 | |
| 26-27 | Norihiko Fukuda (福田紀彦) | November 19, 2013 | Present |
Fujitsu's Main Branch is located in Nakahara-ku.[22] It was formerly Fujitsu's headquarters.[23]
Kawasaki has several factories and development bases of the companies of heavy industry (e.g., JFE Group, Nippon Oil Corporation) and high technology (Fujitsu, NEC Corporation, Toshiba, Dell Japan and Sigma Corporation[24]).
athletic park
Yokosuka Line, Shōnan-Shinjuku Line
Kawasaki is twinned with the following cities in Japan and worldwide.