Chigasaki

Chigasaki is a city in south-central Kanagawa Prefecture, on the eastern bank of the Sagami River and facing Sagami Bay on the Pacific Ocean to the south. The area was largely pasture and farmland until well into the Edo period, and the Tōkaidō passed through it without a post station. The Tōkaidō Main Line connected Chigasaki Station with Tokyo and Osaka in 1898, the village became a town in 1908 and Chigasaki became a city on 1 October 1947. It has been noted as a seaside resort community since the Meiji period, and tourism and summer leisure activities remain important to the local economy beside its role as a bedroom community for Tokyo and Yokohama. Its population passed 200,000 in 2003, which brought special city status, and in 2014 it agreed a sister city relationship with Honolulu. In 2021 it had about 242,798 residents on 35.71 square kilometres.