Tokorozawa City

Overview of Tokorozawa City 

Tokorozawa City is located about 30km from Tokyo, in the southwest part of Saitama Prefecture, almost in the central part of the Musashino Terrace, and bordering the northern part of Tama, Tokyo. The climate is generally mild, with a north-westerly monsoon in winter.

In 1911, the first airfield in Japan was established, and the city is known as ‘Tokorozawa, the Cradle of Aviation’. Today, despite being the central city in southwest Saitama with a population of over 340,000, it has developed as a cultural city in harmony with nature, with many original Japanese landscapes remaining, such as the ancient battlefields of the late Kamakura period and Santome Shinden, a representative area of ‘farming’ traditions from the Edo period, and rich greenery, including the Sayama Hills.

Environmental Initiatives 

Tokorozawa City is promoting measures based on its future vision of “Eco-town Tokorozawa- weaving a future for children through the connection between people and people, and between people and nature”.

To promote the use of renewable energy, large-scale solar PV installations were installed on top of the final landfill site and the surface of the regulating ponds. In recent years, solar PV has been installed in primary and secondary schools and other buildings in the city. In this way, the revenue from the sale of electricity generated in the city is accumulated as the Machi-Eco Fund, which is used to subsidise citizens and businesses that install renewable energy equipment, thereby contributing to the economic cycle in the region. In addition, a new regional electric company, Tokorozawa Mirai Electric Power Co., has been established to spread environmentally friendly electricity in the city region, and is working with citizens and businesses to create a sustainable community.

Furthermore, to ensure that efforts to achieve a zero-carbon by 2050 are also communicated to the younger generation, who will be key to this goal, events are held for students living and studying in the city to learn about and experience actions that contribute to decarbonization. At the same time, as part of its environmental education program, Tokorozawa City raises awareness of environmental initiatives by providing lectures to primary and secondary school students in the city.
For businesses in the city, decarbonization management is promoted through active support, including the promotion of decarbonization measures in collaboration with various industries and the organization of exchange events. 

Tokorozawa will continue to learn from good practices, both nationally and internationally, and work together with various stakeholders, including citizens and companies, to promote initiatives for decarbonization.