city, Tokyo to (metropolis), Honshu, Japan, bordered (east) by Tokyo city. Kichijōji, the centre of the city, was founded in 1659 in the Kichijō-ji shinden (newly developed rice fields of Kichijō Shrine). Musashino grew as a farming village and was served by a railway station on the Chūō Main Line.

Its rural character did not change until after the destructive Kantō earthquake of 1923, when Musashino became a residential suburb of Tokyo. The munitions factories established in the city during World War II were later replaced by electrical machinery plants. Pop. (2005) 137,525.