city, Saitama ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Iruma River. The city is located on the Musashino uplands and the southern part of the Kaji hills. Iruma is renowned for the cultivation of Sayama green tea. It is the site of a base of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force. Iruma has undertaken an industrialization program to exploit its railway connections with Tokyo, to the southeast. Its rich archaeological sites have been damaged by urbanization. Pop. (2005) 148,576.