Tachikawa Libraries Guide: Raccoon Dogs, Lucky Cats, Local History

The Central Library’s local collection: what stands next to the base shelf

I have written in the feature’s article on the base’s history and the rainy-day article that the Central Library gathers its material on the Tachikawa base and airfield on the shelf numbered W-3-10. Here I want to talk about the shelves next to it, and a floor a little higher up.

The whole area to the right of the second-floor entrance is the corner for local and administrative materials centred on Tachikawa. Read the reference-service cases the library has published, and you begin to see what sleeps on these shelves. To a question asking to see old residential maps of Tachikawa, the answer is that residential maps are kept from 1967 for the Sunagawa area and from 1971 for the Tachikawa area. City council minutes are held from 1972. If you want to know how the population changed from before the war, the city’s Statistical Yearbook gives the number of households and the population year by year from 1936. There is also the question, “I heard Tachikawa has a National Treasure — where is it?” The answer is the six-sided stone lantern-pillar (rokumen sekito) at Fusai-ji Temple in Shibasaki-cho, shown with photographs in a book by the city board of education. (See our article on Fusai-ji and Suwa Shrine.) Someone even asked how best to eat udo, the local mountain vegetable. The library handed over Tokyo Udo Monogatari (“The Tokyo Udo Story”), published by the federation of udo growers’ associations. (More in our Tokyo udo article.)

The reference-service guide also lists questions it cannot answer: legal advice, medical advice, life advice, appraisals of works of art — and answers to homework and quizzes. So don’t ask the library for the answer to the quiz in the middle of this article, either.

The library also publishes twelve research guides to looking things up about Tachikawa: the Tachikawa base and airfield, the Tachikawa air raids, the Sunagawa Struggle (the protests against the base’s expansion), the art of Faret Tachikawa, statistics, the changing station area, old maps, Fusai-ji Temple, Suwa Shrine, the merger of Tachikawa and Sunagawa, songs of Tachikawa, and the Tama River. There is even a guide to researching Tachikawa’s songs. Someone, presumably, comes in seriously looking for the city’s school songs, festival dance songs and team cheers.

In the children’s room on the fourth floor there is something even more unexpected: children’s magazines from the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa eras. According to the catalogue the library publishes, they run from Eisai Shinshi, founded in 1877, through Shonen Sekai, Akai Tori (“Red Bird”), Shonen Kurabu and Dowa — 123 titles, about 1,700 volumes. Twenty-two titles are from the Meiji era, 21 from Taisho, 39 from pre-war Showa and 41 from after the war.

Of these, the 107 titles that are not reprints were collected over many years by the children’s author Okkotsu Yoshiko. Okkotsu published Piichaashan in 1964, which was recommended by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Child Welfare Council and won its special prize; she went on to write Hachigatsu no Taiyo o (“To the August Sun”) and Jusansai no Natsu (“The Summer of Thirteen”) among others, and died in 1980 at the age of 51. Her family wished the collection she left to be put to use in a front-line public library, and donated it to the Tachikawa City Library. Sixty-nine of Okkotsu’s own works and 710 books of children’s literature and its study came with it.

Climb two floors up from the base shelf, and there is Akai Tori, lined up. On the fourth floor of the library of an airfield town are the magazines of the children of the Taisho era. Because of their condition they are kept in the closed stacks and, apart from the reprints, can only be read in the library, but anyone can read the catalogue on the library’s website.

Tachikawa’s libraries by the numbers

• 1947 — the year the Metropolitan Tachikawa Library opened. Tachikawa became “a town with a library” 31 years before it had a city library.
• 6,600 — signatures on the 1975 petition for a city library. Before reading a book, they first wrote their names.
• 1.04 million — books lent in the 1981 fiscal year. About ten times the community-hall days.
• About 1,700 — volumes of Meiji-to-early-Showa children’s magazines in the Central Library’s children’s room. The oldest title was founded in 1877.
• 999,265 — items held by the nine libraries in the 2025 fiscal year. Only 735 short of a million.
• 9 — libraries: raccoon dog, lucky cat, sun, cow, rice fish, hydrangea, zelkova, turtle dove, magnolia.

The wanderer’s quiz

Which of Tachikawa’s nine libraries has a maneki-neko, a beckoning cat, as its emblem? (A) Kamisuna Library; (B) Shibasaki Library; (C) Nishiki Library. The answer comes at the end. And just in case: the library won’t tell you.

From emblems, let us move on to numbers. The answer to the second half of the opening mystery lies there.

Among Japan’s top borrowers: Tachikawa’s libraries in numbers

At the back of the Tachikawa City Library’s annual report is a single table. It ranks the public libraries of cities and wards with populations of 150,000 to under 200,000 by the number of loans per resident. It is compiled from the Japan Library Association’s Libraries in Japan: Statistics and Directory, and covers around 50 cities and wards each year.

Follow Tachikawa’s line. Fourth from 2012 to 2014. Third in 2015 and 2016. Fourth in 2017, third in 2018, second in 2019. Fourth in 2020 and 2021, third in 2022. In 2023 it was sixth. For eleven years in a row, from 2012 to 2022, its name is in the top four. The table calls the top five “best practice” — exemplary cases.

In 1975 the city did not have a single library of its own; half a century later, it is a regular among the nation’s exemplary cases for cities of its size. That is how the 6,600 signatures were repaid. To the opening mystery, I would like to offer this answer for now. Precisely because the city started late, its citizens demanded libraries themselves, and spread “libraries close to where you live” across the city like a net. That became a habit of borrowing, and it has lasted for half a century.

The city has held up five pillars for its library service: libraries close to where you live; libraries that help in daily life; libraries that are friendly and easy to use; libraries anyone can use; and libraries that guarantee the freedom to read. Building the eight district libraries first and the central one last follows the first pillar exactly.

Open the statistics for the 2025 fiscal year and the nine libraries hold 999,265 items in all — about 928,000 books, followed by magazines, kamishibai picture-story cards, CDs, audiobooks and so on. The Central Library alone has more than 530,000. In that one year, more than 1.42 million items were lent, and the libraries handled 2,933 research enquiries.

New kinds of bookshelf have been added, too. In January 2021, the “Tachikawa Digital Library” began, letting people borrow e-books on a computer or smartphone. When the city gave every child in its public elementary and junior high schools a school card for it that September, children’s use rose sharply. In the 2022 fiscal year, a donation arrived from the late Tani Shigeharu to enrich the children’s collection. Of about ¥58.5 million, about ¥49.5 million was set aside for buying e-books under a ten-year plan, and the “Tani Shigeharu Collection”, centred on picture books, opened inside the digital library. On the screen, there is a collection that bears one person’s name.

On the third floor of the Central Library, after the old video-viewing equipment wore out and that service ended, a “Relaxed Reading and Learning Corner” opened in July 2022. The furniture was donated by IKEA Tachikawa — the first IKEA to open in Tokyo. The city library’s chairs come from Tokyo’s first IKEA. A very Tachikawa combination. Since 2019 you have also been able to use the Naxos Music Library, a streaming service offering unlimited listening, mainly classical. Digitised materials from the National Diet Library and historical recordings can also be viewed and heard in the library.

With the numbers and new services laid out, let us move on to how to actually use the libraries.

How to use Tachikawa’s libraries: one card for nine, eight neighbouring cities, and the music college’s scores

The library card is shared by all nine libraries. You do not have to live in Tachikawa to get one: people who work or study in the city can, too, if they expect to commute for at least a month. Bring something that confirms your address and name — and, if you commute, something that shows you work or study in the city — and apply at the counter of any library. Registration is valid for three years. Residents of the city can also register for the first time by post.

What is more, Tachikawa has mutual-use agreements with its eight neighbouring cities: Kunitachi, Akishima, Musashimurayama, Kokubunji, Higashiyamato, Kodaira, Hino and Fussa. According to the annual report, the first was with Kunitachi in February 2014, and when Hino and Fussa joined in May 2019, the arrangement covered all eight neighbours. Residents of those cities can make a mutual-use card at Tachikawa’s libraries. They can borrow five books and magazines and one CD or cassette tape, for 14 days. In return, Tachikawa residents can make a card at each of the eight cities’ libraries. The digital library, the music streaming service and the reading-accessibility services cannot be used with a mutual-use card.

Even returning books has a touch suited to a library by the station. The Central Library’s book drop is beside the second-floor entrance and can be used 24 hours a day, including public holidays and the New Year period. A note asks you not to put CDs, or books borrowed from other municipalities, into it.

There are reading-accessibility services, too. For people with visual impairments and others, the libraries lend braille books and audiobooks and offer face-to-face reading aloud. For people who find it hard to come in, they post materials or deliver them to the home. In the 2025 statistics, the Central Library holds 5,197 audiobooks. Tamagawa Library holds 1,982 braille books — more than the Central Library. The little-fish library is an important keeper of braille books, too.

The town has other houses of books besides the city’s libraries. Tachikawa Manga Park, which often comes up, is not counted among the nine. As I wrote in the feature’s article on Manga Park, it charges admission, and its books cannot be borrowed; you read them inside. The library and Manga Park divide the work: one is a place to borrow and take home, the other a place to take off your shoes and hole up.

The library of the National Institute of Japanese Literature, in Midori-cho, preserves research materials and offers them for use; it says that anyone who needs its materials can use it. Viewing historical documents and rare books is on weekdays only and requires a reservation.

The library of Kunitachi College of Music, in Kashiwa-cho, holds about 150,000 scores. For members of the public, the rule is to consult the public library of the city where you live first. Through inter-library loan you can have materials sent or request copies. If you want to see something in person, you reserve in advance through your public library, and if the item is held and available, you can view it in the college library free of charge. Turning up unannounced on the day, you will not be let in. In other words, if a Tachikawa resident wants to see the music college’s scores, the first step is the counter of the local library. A road runs from the little-fish library to a library that holds first editions of Beethoven’s scores.

The city library’s annual report also notes that national research institutions and a music college are gathered in this town, each with its own specialist collection, and says it aims to work with them.

Let me look back at the opening mystery once more. Just after the war, Tachikawa had the metropolitan library, and the townspeople were proud of it. But the city’s own library came late. The citizens made up the lost time with signatures, with a book van, and with nine small libraries, and now the city is among the nation’s leaders for its size. Even now that the metropolitan library has moved to Kokubunji, Tachikawa is still “a town with a library”. The difference is that it is no longer a library someone else put there.

If you come to Tachikawa at the weekend, drop into the Central Library from the deck at the station’s North Exit. Travellers cannot borrow books, but the children’s “land of books” on the fourth floor and the local shelves on the second floor are open to everyone.

Answer to the quiz

The answer is (A), Kamisuna Library. According to the library’s guide, the cat in its emblem is a maneki-neko beckoning “come in, come in” with its right paw, carrying the wish that many people will visit. Shibasaki’s is the tanuki, and Nishiki’s the zelkova.

Before you go

• Who can borrow: A library card is for people who live, work or study in Tachikawa (or, through mutual use, live in one of the eight neighbouring cities). A short-term visitor cannot borrow, but you can walk in and read.
• From central Tokyo and Kanagawa: Tachikawa Station is reached without changing trains from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo Line. From Kanagawa, the JR Nambu Line runs directly between Kawasaki and Tachikawa. Check times and journey lengths on the JR East website.
• Tachikawa City Central Library: 2-36-2 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, on floors 2–4 of Faret Tachikawa Center Square. From the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, take the pedestrian deck to Faret Tachikawa. Check opening hours, closing days and the closure calendar on the official site (Japanese): https://www.library.tachikawa.tokyo.jp/contents?pid=32
• Locations of the nine libraries: https://www.library.tachikawa.tokyo.jp/menucontents?pid=31 (Nishisuna’s aircraft and airfield corner, Tamagawa’s air-raid records corner and Takamatsu’s BOOK & CINEMA corner are on each library’s page)
• How to get a card: https://www.library.tachikawa.tokyo.jp/contents?pid=28 — mutual use with the eight neighbouring cities: https://www.library.tachikawa.tokyo.jp/contents?pid=30
• Twelve research guides on Tachikawa: https://www.library.tachikawa.tokyo.jp/contents?pid=1607
• Catalogue of Meiji, Taisho and early Showa children’s magazines: https://www.library.tachikawa.tokyo.jp/contents?pid=24
• Library of the National Institute of Japanese Literature: https://www.nijl.ac.jp/search-find/ — Kunitachi College of Music Library (use by the public): https://www.lib.kunitachi.ac.jp/riyo/riyo_gakugai/
• Practical tips: Carry an IC transport card such as Suica or PASMO. Libraries are quiet places; keep your voice and phone down.
• Putting it together: Read up on the base on the Central Library’s local shelves, then tour the artworks of Faret Tachikawa from the North Exit deck (our Faret Tachikawa article). If it is raining, you can spend the day walking the station’s elevated level (the rainy-day article). Nishisuna’s aircraft shelf and Tamagawa’s air-raid shelf are best read as a continuation of the base-history and air-raid articles.

After you close your book, at the North Exit of Tachikawa Station

Time in a library stays in the body longer than you expect. Hunched over to peer at the bottom shelf, then an hour in the same position in a reading seat. When you close the book, you notice your neck and shoulders have set solid.

One minute’s walk from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station, on the third floor of the Etoile Building at 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店), a hot yoga studio heated by lava-stone plates. As well as lava-stone hot yoga, it offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lesson.

It is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30, so you can still drop in on a weekday evening after the Central Library has closed.

A trial yoga lesson costs ¥1,980 including tax, with two bath towels, one face towel and a yoga mat included in the rental. You can come with nothing but the books in your bag.

Pregnant guests cannot take part in lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available.

Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita — who holds Eiken Grade 1, Japan’s top English qualification, and a perfect TOEIC score, worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and lived in Alaska for three years — often helps guests from the US bases in English herself. Overseas guests have praised the English support in their Google reviews. If you would like help in English, just mention it when you book.

Studio information: https://ontheshore.jp/ — prices: https://ontheshore.jp/price/ — trial lesson booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

Library books are due back in 14 days. Your body, though, you may want to give back tonight.

Cover photo: The entrance of Tachikawa City Central Library in Faret Tachikawa, with red and blue sculptures on the pavement. (Photo: Abasaa / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

More Tachikawa Walks

• Tachikawa Air Raids: WWII History and a Memorial Walk Guide
• Tachikawa Autumn Leaves Guide: Ginkgo, Zelkova and Where to Walk
• Tachikawa Base Town History: Cola Bottles, Yuming, the Laundry Gate
• Tachikawa Air Base History Walk: The Sunagawa Struggle and After
• Tachikawa Sento Guide: Public Baths, Their History and Bath Etiquette
• Tachikawa Disaster Base and Life Safety Learning Center: A Guide
• Tachikawa Bridges Walk: ‘Nameless Bridge’ to a Double-Deck Crossing
• Tachikawa Cinema City Guide: Tokyo’s First Multiplex and Its Big Sound
• Tachikawa Museums Guide: Art, 2,558 Instruments and Things to Do
• Tachikawa Cycling Guide: Showa Kinen Park’s 14 km and the Tama River
• Tachikawa Festivals Guide: Bon Dances, Flamenco, Nebuta and Yokai
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People, from Seiji Ozawa to a Comet
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People Who Passed Through the Town
• Tachikawa Public Art Walk: A Guide to the 109 Works of Faret Tachikawa
• Tachikawa Farms Guide: Farm Stands, Harvest Days and Tokyo’s Fields
• Tachikawa History: Japan’s Firsts, from Electric Cars to Sazae-san
• Tachikawa Folktales and Legends: A History Walk Through Old Stories
• Tachikawa Walk: Fusai-ji Temple’s National Treasure and Suwa Shrine
• Tachikawa Business Guide: Where West Tokyo Works and Starts Up
• Tachikawa Culture Guide: Ballet, Ice, Anime and Art Near the Station
• Tachikawa’s Green Future: Zero Carbon, Farmland and Springs Guide
• Tachikawa for Foreign Visitors: Haneda Bus, Things to Do, Future
• Tachikawa Population and Family Life: A Guide to the Town’s Future
• Tama Monorail Extension: When It Opens and Tachikawa’s Future Guide
• Tachikawa and Tokyo’s Next Big Earthquake: Disaster Base Guide
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: The Future of Tachikawa’s Unfinished Park
• Tachikawa Station Redevelopment: A Guide to the Future Station Area
• Tachikawa’s Next Decade: Tachihi, GREEN SPRINGS and a New Hotel Guide
• Tachikawa GREEN SPRINGS Guide: Goats, a Rooftop River, Things to Do
• Tachikawa Travel Guide: Things to Do, Walks and History West of Tokyo
• Tachikawa Walk: Slopes, River Terraces and a Flat City’s Hidden Tilt
• Tachikawa History Walk: How a Mulberry Village Became Tama’s Hub
• Tachikawa Airfield History: The 2:12 a.m. Flight to London, 1937
• Tachikawa Was Once in Kanagawa: A History Walk to the 1893 Transfer
• Tachikawa Keirin Velodrome: History, Guide and the Grand Prix’s Home
• Tachikawa Childhood History: Candy Shops, a Base Christmas, Showa Kids
• Tachikawa Aviation Shrine History: The First ‘Tokyo Airfield’ Walk
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: Komorebi Village, Japanese Garden and Bonsai
• Tachikawa Live Music Guide: Basement Venues and Where TM Meant Tama
• Tachikawa Manga Park Guide: 40,000 Manga in a Former City Hall
• Tachikawa Fireworks Festival Guide: History, Tips and Things to Do
• Akishima Day Trip from Tachikawa: Whale Fossil, Wisteria and History
• Fussa Day Trip from Tachikawa: Yokota Air Base History, Route 16 Walk
• Fussa Sake Brewery Walk: Day Trip from Tachikawa, Water and History
• Hachioji Castle Ruins from Tachikawa: History Walk and Silk Town Guide
• Mount Takao Day Trip from Tachikawa: Hiking Guide, History and Forest
• Hino Day Trip from Tachikawa: Shinsengumi History Walk and Guide
• Kokubunji Walk from Tachikawa: Otaka-no-Michi Springs and History
• Kunitachi Walk from Tachikawa: Daigaku-dori, History and Yaho Tenmangu
• Mount Mitake Day Trip from Tachikawa: Wolf Shrine, Valley Walk Guide
• Ome Day Trip from Tachikawa: Showa Retro Walk, Things to Do, History
• Tachikawa Walk: Nekawa Green Path to the Tama River, a Riverside Guide
• Tachikawa Cat-Return Shrine Guide: History, Ema and Suitengu
• Tachikawa Night Views and Mount Fuji at Dawn: A Walking Guide
• Tachikawa at Night: Bar Alleys, Black Markets and Cinema History Walk
• Tachikawa Ramen and Udon Guide: Ramen Square and Noodle History
• Tachikawa vs. Central Tokyo: Why the West Side Wins on Space and Sky
• Tachikawa Old Villages Walk: History Guide, Shibasaki to Nishisuna
• Tachikawa Oni Park Guide: A Red Demon Slide and Trains for Kids
• Tachikawa Parks Guide: Things to Do Beyond Showa Kinen Park, a Walk
• Tachikawa Place Names: A History Walk Through Its Town-Name Origins
• Tachikawa Antarctic and Arctic Science Museum: Free Guide and History
• Tachikawa on a Rainy Day: Indoor Things to Do, a Local Guide
• Tachikawa History Museum Guide: Local History and Folklore, Free
• Tachikawa Cherry Blossoms Guide: Where to See Sakura, and the History
• Tachikawa Schools Walk: History of Night Classes, Bells, Antarctica
• Tachikawa Filming Locations Guide: Anime Pilgrimage and TV Dramas
• Tachikawa Silk History Walk: Japan’s No.1 Mulberry Village, Sunagawa
• Tachikawa Shopping Guide: Why It Has Everything, a History Walk
• Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa: A Walking Guide to Highlights and History
• Tachikawa and San Bernardino: The History of Tokyo’s First Sister City
• Tachikawa Souvenirs Guide: What to Buy, from Tokyo Sake to Paper
• Tachikawa Sports Guide: Things to Do for Fans, Runners and Walkers
• Tachikawa Station Guide: The History Walk of Tama’s Busiest Station
• Tachikawa in Summer: Things to Do, Water Play and Heat Tips Guide
• Tachikawa Sun Sun Road Walk: History, Festival and Winter Lights
• Tachikawa Tachihi History Walk: Aircraft, a Beach and Things to Do
• Tachikawa History: The Samurai Clan Behind the City’s Name, a Walk
• Tama Monorail from Tachikawa: A Guide to Views, Mt. Fuji and History
• Tachikawa Tama River History Walk: Floods, Ferries and Bridges
• Tachikawa Walk: Tamagawa Aqueduct and Sunagawa History Guide
• Tachikawa Udo Guide: History of Tokyo’s Underground White Vegetable
• Tachikawa Trains Guide: Railway History and Where to Watch Trains
• Tachikawa Water History: Where the Tap Water Comes From, and Wells
• Tachikawa History: Why Tokyo’s First IKEA and Cinema Complex Came Here
• Tachikawa Wildlife Guide: Birdwatching, Fireflies and Tanuki Walks
• Tachikawa Yagawa Green Space Walk: Springs, Hake Cliffs and History
• Tachikawa from Yokota Air Base: A Weekend Guide and Things to Do

All Tachikawa Walks (English)