Misato City

Declared "Japan's No. 1 Reading Town".

01 ／ Reading

By a council vote,"Japan's No. 1 Reading Town".

On 18 March 2013, after a vote in the city assembly, Misato declared itself "Nihon-ichi no Dokusho no Machi" (日本一の読書のまち, Japan's No. 1 Reading Town), and the next year it opened Waku Waku Library (わくわくライブラリー), a combined library and local history museum. Sixth-graders take a course and then serve as "child librarians" (子ども司書) through their three years of junior high, and Fureai Bunko (ふれあい文庫) shelves of donated books stand even in shops and hospitals.

Declared by council vote, March 2013
Waku Waku Library opened 2014
14th intake of child librarians

02 ／ Man'yōshū

The city bird, the little grebe,is the Man'yōshū's "nio-dori".

A poem among the Azuma-uta (東歌) in Book 14 of the Man'yōshū, beginning "Nio-dori no Katsushika wase o" (鳰鳥の葛飾早稲を), is said to describe this area, and tells that it grew early-ripening rice long ago. A stone commemorating the poem stands at Tango Inari Shrine (丹後稲荷神社) in Waseda, a prefectural Historic Site. "Niodori" is the old name of the little grebe, the city bird, and is now also the name of a sake made from Misato rice.

Man'yōshū, Book 14, Azuma-uta
Prefectural Historic Site, 1961
City bird: the little grebe

03 ／ Festival

600 scrolls of sutra, packed in boxes,slammed against every front door.

The Banshōmen Daihannyakyō Festival (番匠免の大般若経祭り) is a rite that joins Shinto and Buddhism, held at Kōshōin temple (迎攝院) and Shinmei Shrine (神明神社). The priest ritually reads all 600 scrolls of the Great Wisdom Sutra before the shrine, the scrolls are packed into six wooden boxes, and the boxes are carried round the neighbourhood and slammed against each front door to drive out disease. The ropes binding the boxes are twisted until they snap and hung under the eaves as charms.

600 scrolls of the Great Wisdom Sutra
Six wooden boxes, house to house
Selected by the prefecture, designated by the city

Living here

Three expressways meet inside the city.

about 140,000 people

The Jōban Expressway, the Shuto Expressway No. 6 Misato Route and the Tokyo Gaikan Expressway join at Misato Junction (三郷ジャンクション) inside the city, which marked 40 years since opening in 2025. The stations are Misato and Shin-Misato on the JR Musashino Line and Misato-Chūō on the Tsukuba Express. From Misato-Chūō it is about 20 minutes at best to Akihabara, and City Hall is about 8 minutes by bus from the north exit of Misato Station.

People living here: 142,145people
Area: 30.13km²
Households: 60,829households
Rent (average for rentals): 61,611yen
Healthcare: 7 hospitals ／ 67 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —20 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Misato City in Japan35.830°N 139.872°E

to AkihabaraTsukuba Express20min

Travel times follow 市公式「つくばエクスプレス」（市内の鉄道に関すること）の「三郷中央駅には区間快速電車と普通電車が停車し、秋葉原まで最速約20分」。事業者（首都圏新都市鉄道）の路線図ページの所要時間で今の値を確かめた (checked 2026-09-24). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 6 municipalities across 2 prefectures.

Territory of Misato City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

9.6km

Saitama Prefecture: 八潮市, 吉川市, 草加市
Chiba Prefecture: 松戸市, 流山市
Tokyo: 葛飾区

Misato City isthis kind of town.

01After a council vote in 2013 it declared itself "Japan's No. 1 Reading Town", and has raised child librarians and book corners around town
02Said to be the Katsushika early-rice land of a Man'yōshū poem, whose "nio-dori", the little grebe, is now the city bird
03A summer festival still slams boxes holding 600 sutra scrolls against every front door to drive out disease

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Misato City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗