Asaka

Asaka is a densely settled city in the far south of Saitama Prefecture, Japan, on the Musashino Terrace beside the Arakawa River and bordering the Nerima ward of Tokyo. It began as a string of post stations on the Kawagoe Kaido highway and was known in the Edo period for copper crafts. The town took its name in 1921 from Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, who was honorary chairman of a golf club that moved there, and in 1964 it hosted the riding part of the modern pentathlon at the Tokyo Olympics. Asaka became a city in 1967 and is mainly a bedroom community, with over a third of residents commuting into Tokyo.