Zama, Kanagawa

Zama
Zama; 座間市
	— City —
	; Flag
	; Flag
	Location of Zama in Kanagawa
	Zama
	Coordinates: 35°29′N 139°24′E / 35.483°N 139.4°ECoordinates: 35°29′N 139°24′E / 35.483°N 139.4°E
Country	Japan
Region	Kantō
Prefecture	Kanagawa
	Area
• Total	17.58 km2 (6.8 sq mi)
	Population (February 1, 2010)
• Total	128,989
• Density	7,320/km2 (18,958.7/sq mi)
Time zone	Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
City symbols
- Tree	Osmanthus
- Flower	Sunflower
- Bird	Great Tit
Phone number	046-255-1111
Address	1-1-1 Midorigaoka, Zama-shi, Kanagawa-ken; 228-8566
Website	City of Zama

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Zama kite festival. First attempt to fly a 40′ × 40′ handmade kite.

Zama (座間市, Zama-shi^?) is a city located in central Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The city is also home to the United States' Camp Zama Army base. As of 128,989, the city had an estimated population of 128,989 and a density of 7,320 persons per km². The total area was 17.58 km².

[edit] Geography

Located in central Kanagawa prefecture, the city is mostly flat, although some parts are hilly. The Sagami River, Mekushiri River, and the Hato River flow through Zama. The city is well known for its drinking water, which is cold in the summer and warm in the winter.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Surrounding municipalities

[edit] History

The area around Zama has been settled since prehistoric times, and Jomon period remains have been found. The hamlet of "Izama" was a post station on the ancient Tōkaidō road connecting Kyoto with the provinces in the Kantō region, and the area was part of the tenryō territory within Sagami Province during the Edo period administered directly by the Tokugawa shogunate through a number of hatamoto-class administrators. During the cadastral reforms after the Meiji Restoration in 1889, the area of present-day Zama consisted of five villages in Kōza District, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The area remained very rural until the coming of the Odakyu Electric Railway in 1927 and the Sagami Railway in 1935, which spurred development, but the area was mostly farmland when the Imperial Japanese Army Academy relocated to the Zama area in 1937. The increase in population led Zama village to be promoted to Zama town the same year. However, in 1941, Zama town and surrounding villages were merged into Sagamihara. In 1944, the Kōza Naval Arsenal of the Imperial Japanese Navy was established in the area. It was closed with the end of World War II, and the Imperial Japanese Army Academy was turned over to the United States Army to become Camp Zama.

In September 1948, Zama regained its status as a town independent of Sagamihara. The local economy received a significant boost with the building of a Nissan automobile assembly plant in Zama in 1965. Zama became a city on November 1, 1971.