イタリア産天然溶岩石を使った溶岩ホットヨガスタジオ「オンザショア」

イタリア産天然溶岩石を使った溶岩ホットヨガスタジオ「オンザショア」

Tachikawa vs. Central Tokyo: Why the West Side Wins on Space and Sky

One station: central Tokyo, the Tama area and the mountains

According to the city’s official profile, Tachikawa Station is served by four JR lines, the Chuo, Ome, Nambu and Itsukaichi lines, and the Tama Monorail runs north to south. From Tokyo Station to Tachikawa is 37.5 km of track, 40 minutes on a Chuo Line Special Rapid.

The Tama Monorail running near Tappi Bridge, crossing the Tama River between north and south.
The Tama Monorail running near Tappi Bridge, crossing the Tama River between north and south.
Photo: Tx-re / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Ride east and you reach the heart of Tokyo in 40 minutes. Take the Nambu Line and you reach Kawasaki in Kanagawa without changing trains. Ride the monorail south for Tama New Town, north towards Higashiyamato. And take the Ome Line west and you reach the mountains. According to Musashi Mitake Shrine, it is about 30 minutes from Tachikawa to Ome Station and about 20 more to Mitake Station. Change to the cable car and you can go up to just below the 929-metre summit of Mt Mitake. Stay on the Chuo Line westward and you reach Takao Station, the gateway to 599-metre Mt Takao.

From a single station you can head for Tokyo Station, for a city on the Kanagawa coast, and for a mountain over 900 metres high, with as few changes as possible. The big stations in the centre are good at linking the centre to itself. Tachikawa Station is good at linking the centre to Tama and to the mountains. They have different jobs.

Incidentally, the only “mountain” in Tachikawa itself, according to the city’s walking map, is Konpira-yama, about ten metres high, which the city proudly calls “the only mountain in Tachikawa.” Ten metres inside the city; 929 metres less than an hour away. Tachikawa people have no mountain next door, but they hold a ticket to one.

For readers at Yokota Air Base, the same railway works in your favour. Fussa, Ushihama and Haijima stations, near the base, are all on the JR Ome Line, which runs straight into Tachikawa without a change; from Haijima a Rapid train takes about 12 minutes. The two places share history, too. In October 1969 the US military announced the end of flying at Tachikawa, and a Japanese government document of the time records that most flying units and flight operations at Tachikawa were to be relocated to the United States or to Yokota. In 1977 the Tachikawa base was returned to Japan in full, and much of the old airfield land became Showa Kinen Park. Part of Yokota’s story began here.

The station’s strength shows in its passengers. JR East’s figures for fiscal 2024 give an average of 154,091 people boarding at Tachikawa every day, the most of any station in the Tama area. But more telling than the station figures was the gap between daytime and night-time population.

初日の汗は、予約した人だけが持ち帰れる。

体験レッスンを予約体験専用 03-6665-0898LINE

A city people come to by day: a day-night population ratio of 113.2

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s figures from the 2020 census, 183,581 people live in Tachikawa. In the daytime there are 207,832 people in the city, about 24,000 more. Its day-night population ratio is 113.2, the highest of the 26 cities in the Tama area.

Read the same table ward by ward. At the top are figures in another league, like Chiyoda ward’s 1,355.4. The central wards swell only by day. But read down to the bottom and you find that 13 of the 23 wards have a lower ratio than Tachikawa’s 113.2. The wards as a whole stand at 126.8, so Tachikawa does not beat the 23 wards overall. Even so, measured by its power to draw people in by day, Tachikawa ranks above more than half of the wards.

A 2017 article citing the government’s regional economic analysis system reported that, over one ten-year tally, employee income of people living in Tachikawa came to 475.8 billion yen, while employee income of people working in Tachikawa came to 627.5 billion. The difference, 151.7 billion yen, is how much more people from other towns earn working in Tachikawa.

In 1993 the geographer Yamashita Hiroki, discussing where listed companies placed their branch offices, wrote of Tachikawa and similar cities that they were growing fast “despite the handicap of having no prefectural office.” Tachikawa is in Tokyo, so of course it has no prefectural government office. But to the scholar, Tachikawa looked almost like a prefectural capital. A city full of self-doubt that outsiders saw as a capital without a capitol: that is a pleasing mismatch.

Tachikawa vs. the 23 wards, by the numbers

  • 9.08: square metres of city park per Tachikawa resident. The 23 wards: 2.93. Bigger than any single ward. Nobody here is short of a place to nap.
  • 73: kilometres from Tachikawa Station to Fuji’s summit (my calculation). From Shinjuku Station, 95. Twenty-three kilometres nearer to the neighbour.
  • 7,675: people per square kilometre in Tachikawa. The 23 wards: 15,883. About half the elbow-bumping.
  • 113.2: percent, the 2020 day-night population ratio. First of Tama’s 26 cities, and above 13 of the 23 wards. By day, Tachikawa is busy with borrowed people.
  • 60: hours, the yearly sunshine gap between the Fuchu and central Tokyo stations (normals). Two and a half extra days of sunshine every year.
  • 10: metres, the height of Konpira-yama, which the city calls “the only mountain in Tachikawa.” For a real one, take the Ome Line.

A traveller’s detour quiz

In a survey of residents carried out by the city of Tachikawa in spring 2026, what share of people said they “want to keep living in Tachikawa” or “would rather keep living in Tachikawa”?

  1. about 62 percent (B) about 77 percent (C) about 92 percent

The answer comes near the end of this article.

How Tachikawa feels to live in: residents say they want to stay

To finish the numbers, I wanted to hear from residents themselves.

Every year the city of Tachikawa mails a survey on city affairs to 3,000 randomly selected residents aged 18 and over. In April 2026, 1,112 of them replied. One question asks whether they want to keep living in Tachikawa.

I will hold back that figure for now. But I can share some of the comments from the free-answer section, printed anonymously and as written in the report.

One person wrote that nature is rich, fields and parks are close at hand, and it is a good area to raise children. Another wrote that compared with central Tokyo, there seems to be too little cultural capital: second-hand bookshops, art galleries and so on. That one stings, but a report that prints comments like that is a report you can trust. And the line I looked at longest was this:

“I love Tachikawa, so I want to keep living here. I hope it doesn’t get too fashionable and loses its feel of a regional prefectural capital.”

Thirty-three years after a geographer wrote of Tachikawa’s “handicap of having no prefectural office,” a resident asks the city to protect its “prefectural-capital feel.” Perhaps Tachikawa people like their city being complete in itself more than they like it being part of Tokyo.

Outside opinion is catching up. In Recruit’s SUUMO ranking of the most desirable places to live in the Tokyo metropolitan area, 2025 edition, Tachikawa came 15th.

That, I think, is the point. Tachikawa only feels it has lost to the 23 wards when the ruler is placed on the centre’s side. Number of tall buildings, number of late-night places, depth of cultural capital: measured that way, the centre wins, and fairly. But measure by park space, open sky, distance to Fuji, the power to draw people in by day, and the residents’ wish to stay, and Tachikawa need not look up to any of the 23 wards. Believing there was only one ruler may have been the real source of the inferiority.

From inferiority to pride: the middle of Tokyo is here too

Back to the opening question. Why do Tachikawa people say “it’s not one of the 23 wards”?

Here is what the documents confirm. Tachikawa is a Santama town that moved from Kanagawa to Tokyo in 1893. It was called Toka, “below the capital,” and its area code was 042, not 03. When the population boomed after the war, roads and sewers lagged, the difference with the wards was named the “Santama gap,” and in 1975 Tokyo and the municipalities set eight gap issues, most of which were resolved by 2000. After the gap closed, the longing for the 23 wards stayed on as a habit of speech.

The Tachikawa I found in the numbers looked very different from that habit. About three times the wards’ park space per person. Fuji 23 km closer than from Shinjuku. Central Tokyo, Kanagawa and the mountains from one station. The highest day-night population ratio in Tama, above more than half the wards.

One more figure. In the preliminary results of the 2025 census released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the cities, towns and villages of the Tama area held about 4.27 million people. According to the encyclopedia, only eight prefectures have more people than the Tama area: Kanagawa, Osaka, Aichi, Saitama, Chiba, Hyogo, Hokkaido and Fukuoka. Tachikawa stands at the front door of those 4.27 million.

As this series has noted before, the city’s own profile describes Tachikawa’s location as “roughly in the centre of Tokyo, towards the west.” Look at Tokyo from its eastern edge to its western edge and that is exactly right. Tachikawa only looks like the western fringe when you read the map from the 23 wards. Seen from the whole of Tokyo, it sits just west of the middle.

From Shinjuku it is one train on the Chuo Line. From Kawasaki, ride the Nambu Line to the end without changing. Come one weekend, get off at Tachikawa, and lie down on the meadow in Showa Kinen Park. On a clear winter evening, stand on the bank of the Tama River. You will notice that there was never only one ruler to measure against the 23 wards.

Tokyo does not end at the 23 wards. One day, perhaps, Tachikawa people will stop saying “I’m heading into Tokyo” and say “I’m heading into the centre” instead. After all, they already live in Tokyo.

Quiz answer

The answer is (C), about 92 percent. In the city of Tachikawa’s report on its 2026 survey (covering fiscal 2025), 56.8 percent answered “I want to” keep living in Tachikawa and 35.5 percent “I would rather,” 92.4 percent in total. The figure has stayed above 92 percent for four years running.

Before you go

  • Getting here: Tokyo Station to Tachikawa Station is 37.5 km, about 40 minutes by Chuo Line Special Rapid (according to the city of Tachikawa). From Shinjuku, Tachikawa is one train on the JR Chuo Line. From Kanagawa, the JR Nambu Line runs from Kawasaki to Tachikawa without a change, and from the Yokohama Line you can change to the Chuo Line at Hachioji.
  • From Yokota Air Base: Fussa, Ushihama and Haijima stations are on the JR Ome Line, which runs directly to Tachikawa; from Haijima a Rapid train takes about 12 minutes. Carry an IC card such as Suica or PASMO.
  • To measure park space: Showa Kinen Park (Showa Memorial Park). About 10 minutes on foot from JR Tachikawa Station to the Akebono Gate, or about 2 minutes from JR Nishi-Tachikawa Station on the Ome Line to the Nishi-Tachikawa Gate. Official site: https://www.showakinen-koen.jp/ (check opening hours, fees and closed days there).
  • To look for Fuji: the Tama River green space (one of the Kanto “100 views of Fuji”), best on clear winter days: https://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/chiiki/fujimi0057.html . Around the winter solstice, Diamond Fuji may be visible from the Tama Monorail between Tama Center and Tachikawa-Minami stations, weather permitting (monorail: https://www.tama-monorail.co.jp/ ).
  • For the mountains: Ome Line to Ome Station about 30 minutes, then about 20 more to Mitake Station (according to Musashi Mitake Shrine).
  • Where the numbers come from: the park table is the Tokyo Bureau of Construction’s park-area table by municipality; the daytime population figures are from the Tokyo Statistics Division; residents’ views come from the city of Tachikawa’s survey report. All are public.
  • Putting it together: in the morning, measure the sky from the Minna no Harappa meadow; at midday, return to the North Exit and feel the daytime crowds; at dusk, cross the Tama River by monorail and look towards Fuji. In one day you can check the parks, the daytime population and the mountain with your own feet.

After the walk, at Tachikawa Station North Exit

Pace out a park and walk a riverbank looking for Fuji, and your body gets colder and your calves tighter than you expect.

One minute on foot from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, on the 3rd floor of the Etoile Building (2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo), is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店), a hot yoga studio heated by lava-stone flooring. It also offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lessons. It is open every day, 8:00 to 23:30.

Guests from the Yokota community have been coming to the studio for a long time. Many of the yoga instructors speak English, and the owner, Naomi Fujita, often helps guests from the US bases in English herself. She holds Eiken Grade 1, Japan’s top English proficiency grade, and a perfect TOEIC score, worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and lived in Alaska for three years. Not every lesson is taught in English, so mention your language when you book.

A trial yoga lesson costs ¥1,980 including tax: a 60-minute class with two bath towels, one face towel and mat rental. Pregnant guests cannot join lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available.

Studio: https://ontheshore.jp/ ; trial booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

No need to go into the centre: sweat here, breathe out slowly, and step back under Tachikawa’s wide sky.

Cover photo: The giant zelkova and surrounding trees in Showa Kinen Park, with Tachikawa’s wide sky opening above. (Photo: Yoshikazu TAKADA from Tokyo, Japan / CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

More Tachikawa Walks

All Tachikawa Walks (English)

初日の汗は、予約した人だけが持ち帰れる。

体験レッスンを予約体験専用 03-6665-0898LINE

💬 ご質問がある場合はこちらからどうぞ

オンザショアのチャットで質問する（24時間受付）

レッスン内容・料金・体験のご予約など、気になることをお気軽にお尋ねください。

1

2


Warning: Attempt to read property "show_author" on false in /home/c1531448/public_html/ontheshore.jp/wp-content/themes/heal_tcd077/single.php on line 165

関連記事

PAGE TOP

TEL

体験レッスン

ご予約

質問する
ご体験予約