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The story
In a ranking of “municipalities people want to live in permanently,” covering the Tama area west of central Tokyo, Kokubunji and other cities landed near the top, drawing praise on social media such as “solid ground and strong flood resistance” and “the under-15 population is growing.” Picking up on the topic, 5ch users debated everything from where exactly the Tama area’s boundaries lie to the tradeoff between access to central Tokyo and overall livability. While some pushed for neighboring municipalities like Tokorozawa, Fuchu, and Hachioji, others pointed to commuting hassles and flood risk, with opinions splitting along residents’ different lifestyles.
(Omitted)
● Voices from social media
On X (formerly Twitter), users wrote things like: “Kokubunji really is the best place to live — solid ground, strong against flooding,” “Makes me want to move back to that area again,” “People are catching on to how good it is: solid ground, livability, easy to raise kids, close to Tachikawa and Kichijoji, and plenty of nature,” “Kokubunji has everything you need, it’s a great town,” and “The under-15 population is growing because of the great balance between education, living environment, and access to central Tokyo!”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
It's not? (´・ω・｀)
It was originally part of Kanagawa, so that's not entirely wrong
If you go all the way out to Hachioji in deep Tama, getting into the 23 wards really becomes a hassle
Your whole life ends up revolving around "getting to Shinjuku" as the big goal, and you get this strong "technically Tokyo but living out in the boonies" feeling
Paid trash bags are annoying too…
Up to Chofu is still fine though
>getting into the 23 wards becomes a hassle
Unless something unusual comes up, there's no real need to go there
Tachikawa and Kichijoji cover pretty much everything
Isn't Tokorozawa fine?
It's even got a Waseda University campus
Right? That's exactly the problem
Yurakucho/Ginza, Ikebukuro/Shibuya, Ueno, Ebisu, Yokohama…
You just stop going to areas like these entirely
It costs money, takes time, it's a hassle…
So you end up drifting away from events, concerts, and museums too
Check the hazard map — if you want to avoid flood risk, Tokorozawa is the clear pick
I lived there back in my student days.
Fine if you only ever do remote work, but if you never go into the city your sense of culture withers
I'd say it's the opposite — it's city people whose sense of culture withers if they never leave the city for the countryside
I don't get what you mean by "sense of culture withers"
If anything, a mind steeped in the city center's concrete and fully soaked in capitalism is the one that's already dead inside
Isn't there a good spot for remote workers?
I went to Fuchu-Honmachi recently and it was really nice
Fuchu's also kind of a transit island
There's a racetrack so it's a mixed bag for raising kids, but I think the support programs there were pretty solid
Kushiro's great
Cool in summer and barely any snow even in winter
Somewhere around Saitama-Shintoshin
Is deliberately avoiding Kichijoji some kind of trend now?
Obviously closer to central Tokyo is better, all else equal
Then Kawaguchi City
Cheap, close by, well-developed
Big population too
I think it's fair to say "Tama" is everything past Tachikawa on the Chuo Line lol
That's basically Inagi City in all but name
You get an easy commute since trains start from Mukogaoka-Yuen
If you're buying real estate, go with the "central 3 wards" — Chuo, Chiyoda, Minato
Except you two, Tsukishima and Odaiba — you're no good
Harumi is… basically Tsukishima though
Population density is low too, so you can live comfortably without feeling cramped
Also Toyosu and Shinonome
Re: #167
Past Iruma, landslides get scary
Toyosu and Shinonome are in Koto Ward
Isn't Odaiba in Koto Ward?
The Fuji TV/Joypolis side is Minato Ward
The ward changes depending on which side of the Wangan Line you're on
The Odaiba area spans
Minato, Koto, and Shinagawa Wards
Strong ground, cheap land, close to the mountains, one train straight into central Tokyo
How many minutes does the corporate-drone commuter train take to reach Minato Ward, I wonder
Honestly, now that EMI TERRACE is built, station building and all, I think Tokorozawa City has a pretty good balance
It's 30 minutes to Ikebukuro, and the direct lines to Shin-Kiba, Shibuya, and Yokohama are insane
If you actually have business in Minato Ward, you'd be better off living in Chiba or Kanagawa
Keikyu Line is the way to go, basically
Shinagawa Station is in Minato Ward after all
Background and points of debate
“Tama area” is an umbrella term for the 26 cities, 3 towns, and 1 village spread across the western side of the Tokyo metropolitan area, but there’s no clear-cut administrative boundary, so even on the thread opinions split over “where does Tama actually start.” Cities along the Chuo Line like Tachikawa, Kokubunji, and Kunitachi are gaining popularity thanks to redevelopment and expanding commercial facilities, while areas along the Seibu Line such as Tokorozawa and Sayama, and regions further out than Hachioji, get praised for solid ground and cheap land — though opinions differ on travel time to central Tokyo and cost of living. Neither the original article nor the thread explicitly notes that the “solid ground” and “flood-resistant” claims mainly refer to low risk on hazard maps, not a guarantee that earthquakes themselves won’t happen. The thread also touched on the gap between administrative boundaries and geographic intuition, such as the historical quirk of Machida City being geographically surrounded by Kanagawa Prefecture.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Tokyo’s ‘Tama area municipalities people want to settle in permanently’ ranking sees comments like “solid ground, strong against flooding” and “the under-15 population is growing!”“
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