Suginami, The Tōkyō Region, Kantō Region, Japan

🇯🇵 Suginami (杉並区) is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The ward refers to itself as Suginami City in English. The total area is 34.06 km².

Suginami occupies the western part of the ward area of Tokyo. Its neighbors include these special wards: to the east, Shibuya and Nakano; to the north, Nerima; and to the south, Setagaya. Its western neighbors are the cities of Mitaka and Musashino.

The Kanda River passes through Suginami. The Zenpukuji river originates from Zenpukuji Park in western Suginami, and the Myōshōji River originates in Myōshōji Park, to the north of Ogikubo station.

The name Suginami dates back to the early Edo period and is a shortened version of Suginamiki ("avenue of cedars"). This name came about when an early land baron, Lord Tadayoshi Okabe, planted a row of cedar trees to mark the bounds of his property.

The following neighbourhoods make up Suginami-ku.

Iogi Area: • Igusa • Imagawa • Kamiigusa • Kamiogi • Minamiogikubo • Momoi • Nishiogikita • Nishiogiminami • Ogikubo • Shimizu • Shimoigusa • Zenpukuji.

Suginami Area: • Amanuma • Asagayakita • Asagayaminami • Hon'amanuma • Kōenjikita • Kōenjiminami • Naritahigashi • Naritanishi • Umezato.

Takaido Area: • Hamadayama • Kamitakaido • Kugayama • Miyamae • Shimotakaido • Shōan • Takaido • Takaidohigashi • Takaidonishi.

Wadabori Area: • Eifuku • Hōnan • Horinouchi • Izumi • Matsunoki • Ōmiya • Wada.

Rail • JR East ◦ Chūō Main Line (Chūō-Sobu Line): Koenji, Asagaya, Ogikubo, Nishi-Ogikubo Stations • Keio Corporation ◦ Keio Line: Hachiman-yama Station, Roka-kōen Station ◦ Keio Inokashira Line: Eifuku-cho, Nishi Eifuku, Hamada-yama, Takaido, Fujimi-ga-oka, Kuga-yama Stations • Seibu Railway ◦ Seibu Shinjuku Line: Shimo-Igusa, Iogi, Kami-Igusa Stations • Tokyo Metro ◦ Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line: Honancho (branch line); Higashi Koenji, Shin-Koenji, Minami Asagaya, Ogikubo Stations.

Road • National highways: Route 20, the Kōshū Kaidō • Kan-nana Dori (Number 7 Ring Road) • Kan-pachi Dori (Number 8 Ring Road) • Itsukaichi Kaidō (Suginami Akiruno Line, Tokyo Metropolitan Road Route 7) • Ōme Kaidō.

Higher Education: • Meiji University, Izumi Campus.

Economy Animation: Several animation studios are located in Suginami. Bones is headquartered in Igusa, while Sunrise has its headquarters near the Kami-Igusa Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line. Bones was founded by former members of Sunrise, and staff at each company often help each other on projects. The Satelight studio, founded in Sapporo, relocated to the Asagaya neighbourhood in 2006 (an earlier Tokyo office, at a different location in Suginami, had been in existence since 2003). In addition, many smaller studios are based here; as of 2006, over 70 studios (of 400 throughout Japan) were located in Suginami.

Japanese operations: The communications and electronics giant Iwatsu Electric is headquartered in Kugayama. Foreign operations: American Express used to have its headquarters located in a building south of Ogikubo station but it moved to a location in central Tokyo in 2020. Microsoft has a branch office in the Daitabashi Asahi Seimei Building in Izumi. Former economic operations: Prior to its disestablishment, Data East had its headquarters in Suginami.