Description of Kawagoe City

Kawagoe has been inhabited since the early days of Japan. Remnants of homes from the Jomon and Yayoi periods have been found around the banks of rivers that flow through the city. Later in the Edo Period, Kawagoe functioned as a key location that provided various materials, and the Shogunate assigned powerful daimyo feudal lords to live here. During the Meiji Era, Kawagoe prospered as the top commercial city in Saitama Prefecture. Special products of the city were mainly grains, textiles and cabinets. Kawagoe is currently growing as a metropolis situated in the southwest region of Saitama Prefecture. Since Kawagoe has been placed in the limelight as a “City of History and Culture” in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, many tourists visit the city to enjoy its rich cultural treasures and the Kawagoe Festival.

In 1955, the city’s population stood at 104,612 people, and had grown to 300,000 by 1990, an increase of more than three times in the 40 years until 2005.

With about 4,940,000 tourists visiting Kawagoe City each year, the city is the leading popular tourist spot in the prefecture. Kawagoe has the unique characteristic of mainly being a place of community resources, such as history, culture and festivals.

In Kawagoe, the JR Kawagoe Line (connecting with the Tokyo Rinkai Kosoku Railway Rinkai Line, the JR Saikyo Line and Hachiko Line), the Tobu Tojo Line (connecting with the Eidan Yurakucho Subway Line) and the Seibu-Shinjuku Line run through the city, and there are 11 train stations. It is a city with easy access to the Tokyo area, taking only about 50 minutes to Shinjuku and about 30 minutes to Ikebukuro.