city, Chiba ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Jōban Line (railway), northeast of Tokyo city. It was formed in 1954 by the merger of the towns of Kashiwa and Kogane and two smaller hamlets. A small post town on the Mito road during the Tokugawa era (1603–1867), Kashiwa was a railway hub and local commercial centre until World War II. With electrification of one of the railway lines in 1951, Kashiwa rapidly became a residential suburb of the Tokyo–Yokohama Metropolitan Area. Pop. (2005) 380,963.