Hachiōji (八王子市 Hachiōji-shi) is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. As of 1 February 2016, the city had an estimated population of 579,330, and a population density of 3110 persons per km2. Its total area is 186.38 square kilometres (71.96 sq mi).
During the Meiji period, Hachiōji prospered as an important location for the production of silk and silk textiles. The industry faded away, however, in the 1960s. Today, Hachiōji mainly serves as a commuter town for people working in Tokyo, and as a location for many large colleges and universities.
The special wards (特別区 tokubetsu-ku) of Tokyo comprise the area formerly incorporated as Tokyo City. On July 1, 1943, Tokyo City was merged with Tokyo Prefecture (東京府 Tōkyō-fu) forming the current "metropolitan prefecture". As a result, unlike other city wards in Japan, these wards are not conterminous with a larger incorporated city.
Tokyo is near the boundary of three plates, making it an extremely active region for smaller quakes and slippage which frequently affect the urban area with swaying as if in a boat, although epicenters within mainland Tokyo (excluding Tokyo's 2000 km long island jurisdiction) are quite rare. It's not uncommon in the metro area to have hundreds of these such minor quakes (magnitudes 4–6) that can be felt in single year, something local residents merely brush off but can be a source of anxiety to not only to foreign visitors but Japanese from elsewhere as well. They rarely cause much damage (sometimes a few injuries) as they are either too small or far away as quakes tend to dance around the region. Particularly active are offshore regions and to a lesser extent Chiba and Ibaraki.