Tsukuba つくば
—  Special city  —
つくば市
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Location of Tsukuba in Ibaraki
Tsukuba
Coordinates: 36°2′N 140°4′E / 36.033°N 140.067°E / 36.033; 140.067Coordinates: 36°2′N 140°4′E / 36.033°N 140.067°E / 36.033; 140.067
Country	Japan
Region	Kantō
Prefecture	Ibaraki
Government
• Mayor	Ken'ichi Ichihara
Area
• Total	284.07 km2 (109.68 sq mi)
Population (January 2008)
• Total	207,394
• Density	730/km2 (1,900/sq mi)
Time zone	Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
City symbols
- Tree	Japanese zelkova
- Flower	Hoshizaki-yukinoshita (Saxifraga stolonifera Curtis f. aptera (Makino) H.Hara)
- Bird	Ural owl
Phone number	029-836-1111
Address	4741 Yatabe, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305-8555
Website	City of Tsukuba

Tsukuba Center, in the city central district

One of the buildings at the University of Tsukuba

The Tsukuba Express

Mount Tsukuba

Tsukuba (つくば市, Tsukuba-shi^?) is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It is known as the location of the Tsukuba Science City (筑波研究学園都市, Tsukuba Kenkyū Gakuen Toshi^?), a planned city developed in the 1960s.

As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 207,394 and a population density of 730 persons per km². Its total area is 284.07 km².

Mount Tsukuba, particularly well-known for its toad-shaped Shinto shrine, is located near the city.

Tsukuba is a twin city of Irvine, California, Milpitas, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts^[1][2] in the United States of America.

Etymology[link]

The Fudoki of Hitachi Province (常陸国風土記, hitachi no kuni fudoki^?), a national geography completed in 721, says Tsukuba was named after a noble called Tsukuha no Mikoto (筑箪命^?).^[3] According to the book, Tsukuba was once called Ki Province (紀国, ki no kuni^?). Under the reign of Mimaki no Sumeramikoto (美麻貴天皇^?) (Emperor Sujin), Tsukuha no Mikoto from the Uneme clan (采女氏, uneme uji^?) was appointed as its governor. He had a strong desire to leave his name in history, so he renamed the province to Tsukuha, which is now pronounced Tsukuba.^[3] This description may be unhistorical, since Emperor Sujin is now considered to be a legendary person, but at least it suggests the name Tsukuba has been used from ancient times.

History[link]

Tsukuba Science City represents one of the world's largest coordinated attempts to accelerate the rate of and improve the quality of scientific discovery. The city was closely modeled on other planned cities and science developments, including Brasilia, Novosibirsk's Akademgorodok, Bethesda, and Palo Alto. The city was founded by the merger of Ōho, Sakura, Toyosato, and Yatabe.

Beginning in the 1960s, the area was designated for development. Construction of the city centre, the University of Tsukuba and 46 public basic scientific research laboratories began in the 1970s. The city became operational in the 1980s to stimulate scientific discovery. Its constituent municipalities were administratively united in 1987. By the year 2000, the city's 60 national research institutes and two universities had been grouped into five zones: higher education and training, construction research, physical science and engineering research, biological and agricultural research, and common (public) facilities. These zones were surrounded by more than 240 private research facilities. Among the most prominent institutions are the University of Tsukuba (1973; formerly Tokyo University of Education); the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK); the Electrotechnical Laboratory; the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory; and the National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research. The city has an international flair, with about 3,000 foreign students and researchers from as many as 90 countries living in Tsukuba at any one time.

Over the past several decades, nearly half of Japan's public research and development budget has been spent in Tsukuba. Important scientific breakthroughs by its researchers include the identification and specification of the molecular structure of superconducting materials, the development of organic optical films that alter their electrical conductivity in response to changing light, and the creation of extreme high-pressure vacuum chambers. Tsukuba has become one of the world's key sites for government-industry collaborations in basic research. Earthquake safety, environmental degradation, studies of roadways, fermentation science, microbiology, and plant genetics are some of the broad research topics having close public-private partnerships.

Tsukuba hosted the Expo '85 world's fair in 1985, which is commemorated by a full-scale, working rocket in the city park. Attractions at the event included the 85-metre (279 ft) Technocosmos, which at that time was the world's tallest Ferris wheel.^[4]

During the Fukushima I nuclear accidents in 2011, evacuees from the accident zone reported that municipal officials in Tsukuba refused to allow them access to shelters in the city unless they presented certificates from the Fukushima government declaring that the evacuees were "radiation free".^[5]

On May 6, 2012, Tsukuba was struck by a tornado which caused heavy damage to numerous structures and approximately twenty thousand residents were left without electricity. The storm injured forty-five people and a fourteen year-old boy was killed.

Transportation[link]

On August 24, 2005, a rail service called the Tsukuba Express, or simply "TX", opened. Operated by the Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company, it provides Tsukuba with a rapid connection to Akihabara Station in Tokyo. It takes 45 minutes to travel between Tsukuba Station and Akihabara Station.

The bus station, located in the same area as the TX, offers intracity transport as well as travel to stations in nearby towns and to major stations throughout Kantō.

Tsukuba is also located on the Joban Expressway, the express tollway which runs between Tokyo and Mito.

The closest major airport is Narita International Airport, connected to Tsukuba with a regular bus service (the travel time is approximately 1 hour 40 minutes). Haneda Airport is also accessible from the city via a bus that carries people daily from the airport to the city's center. A new domestic airport is being built in nearby Omitama, Ibaraki which will connect with Sapporo, Hokkaido, Naha, Okinawa, Osaka, and Fukuoka.

Research institutes in Tsukuba[link]

• Geographical Survey Institute
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
• KEK
• National Food and Research Institute (NFRI)
• National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
• National Institute for Environmental Studies
• National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)
• National Institute for Rural Engineering
• Tsukuba Botanical Garden
• University of Tsukuba

Museums in Tsukuba[link]

• Science Museum of Map and Survey

Name in kanji[link]

Tsukuba (つくば^?) is one of a small number of hiragana cities in Japan whose names are written in hiragana rather than kanji (Chinese characters). When written in kanji, it is rendered "筑波."

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tsukuba, Ibaraki

• Tsukuba Alien Times Tsukuba's English newsletter since 1987
• Tsukuba City (official English website)
• Tsukuba City (official Japanese website)
• Tsukuba travel guide from Wikitravel
• Tsukuba Wiki

v t e Ibaraki Prefecture Cities Bandō Chikusei Hitachi Hitachinaka Hitachiōmiya Hitachiōta Hokota Inashiki Ishioka Itako Jōsō Kamisu Kasama Kashima Kasumigaura Kitaibaraki Koga Mito (capital) Moriya Naka Namegata Omitama Ryūgasaki Sakuragawa Shimotsuma Takahagi Toride Tsuchiura Tsukuba Tsukubamirai Ushiku Yūki Higashiibaraki District Ibaraki Ōarai Shirosato Inashiki District Ami Kawachi Miho Kitasōma District Tone Kuji District Daigo Naka District Tōkai Sashima District Goka Sakai Yūki District Yachiyo

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. It includes attribution to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2009)

Keiichi Tsuchiya

In 2008, as Executive Advisor of ARTA
Nationality	Japanese
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years	1994-2000
Teams	Team Kunimitsu Honda, Team Lark McLaren, Toyota Team Europe, TV Asahi Team Dragon
Best finish	2nd (1999)
Class wins	2 (1995, 1999)

Keiichi Tsuchiya (土屋 圭市, Tsuchiya Keiichi^?, born January 30, 1956, Tōmi, Nagano, Japan) is a professional race car driver. He is also known as the "Drift King" (or Dorikin (ドリキン)) for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. He is also known for touge (mountain pass) driving.

The car he drives, a Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno, has become one of the most popular sports cars; the car is also known as "Hachi-Roku" in Japan (hachi-roku meaning "eight six"); his car is also called "The Little Hachi that could." A video known as Pluspy documents Tsuchiya's touge driving with his AE86. He also is a consultant for one of the popular comic books, "Initial D". "Bunta" (Takumi's dad) is a character which describes him.

Biography[link]

Tsuchiya started his career through the Fuji Freshman series in 1977. Unlike many drivers who came from wealthy families or motorsport backgrounds, he honed his skills from street racing and became an underground legend.

Racing career[link]

National championships

He would continue to take part in the Japanese Formula Three Championship, Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC), the latter while driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R (previously in the Cosmo Oil Sierra Cosworth) in the Group A championships and later a Honda Civic in the Supertouring car championships. ^[1]

Le Mans

He went on to score a class win and an 8th place overall at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Honda NSX. In 1999 of the same race, this time in a Toyota GT-One, during the last hour while co-driver Ukyo Katayama was building up pace to the leading BMW V12 LMR he was forced into the grass by a backmarker privateer's BMW LMP, blowing the tire out. They survived the ordeal and went onto score the fastest lap but were forced to settle for second.

NASCAR

He has raced in NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition races at Suzuka Circuit (Suzuka Thunder 100) and at Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway for the 1998 NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition and 1999 NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series races at the circuit, both named the Coca-Cola 500K.

Drifting career[link]

When Tsuchiya was a freshman in circuit racing, he got his racing license suspended because of the illegal racing he was still doing. In the movie series Shuto Kousoku Trial, he advised street racers to leave the illegal racing scene if they want to become involved with professional racing. ^[2]

After his retirement[link]

After his retirement, he remained in racing and is now an official Drift Muscle(He Quit D1 in January 2011) judge and was Team Director for both GT500 (for one year) and GT300 Class of ARTA JGTC Team until the team disbanded their GT300 operation at the end of the 2005 season. He owned the aftermarket suspension company Kei Office until he sold the business in 2005. His trademark color is jade green which appears on his overalls and helmet and is the adopted color of the company he used to own, Kei Office. It was also the color of the D1 Grand Prix Kei Office S15 Silvia of driver and employee Yasuyuki Kazama who also wears a suit similar in pattern.

He also hosts the video magazine "Best Motoring" which features road tests of new Japanese cars including a special section called "Hot Version" which focuses on performance-modified cars. He is a guest presenter in Video Option, a monthly video magazine, similar to the Hot Version which also regularly covers the D1GP and its sister video magazine Drift Tengoku which deals purely with drifting.

He has been an editorial supervisor on the televised anime Initial D and Wangan Midnight. He appeared in episode 23 of Initial D First Stage as a special guest. He also appeared in the semi biographical film Shuto Kousoku Trial 2,3,4,5 and was also featured in the Super GT magazine show in Japan. His life in driving is parallel to that of the Initial D main character, Takumi, as both of them started exploring their local touge while doing regular deliveries for their family businesses. In Initial D 1st Stage episode 23, he was alluded to when Takumi's father was having a conversation on the phone with someone referred to as "Mr. Tsuchiya" who addressed Takumi's father as "Bunta," adding that the memories of his drifting still "scared the shit" out of him. In the Initial D 3rd Stage, the color can also be seen on the overalls and helmet of the sportsbike rider who overtook Takumi as he was en route to an initiation battle with Ryosuke Takahashi. The color of Tomo's racing suit from the Initial D 4th Stage is jade green and has a similar pattern to Tsuchiya's suit. Lastly, Keiichi himself is featured in one episode of Initial D right before the battle with Ryosuke Takahashi when he calls Bunta (Takumi's father) to inquire about the young man. Here he is shown wearing a similar race suit design.

He also made an appearance opposite Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson in a Motorworld in Japan special showing drifting competition in the late 1980s in Japan.

After 1995, he sometimes appeared as a Formula One guest commentator in Japanese Fuji TV. He now owns a new suspension company called DG5.

In 2006, he made a cameo as a fisherman in the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in which he was also stunt coordinator and stunt man. Although he only had two lines, it is considered to be an inside joke to the drift racing community.

AE86 Specs[link]

Quotes[link]

• "I drift not because it is a quicker way around a corner but the most exciting way."

• "Speed isn't everything; you gotta look cool on the touge too."

• "This is fun! I wish that Toyota could make cars like this again!" (on the Toyota AE86)

• "Yeah! How come this car gets me fired up all the time?" After winning a downhill touge against a Skyline R34 with the Toyota AE86^[3]

• "カウンターステアが遅いんだな？ (Countersteer is late, huh?)" (from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, dubbed as "You call that drifting?")

• "Men with guts attack those corners!"^[3] - it was a reply to Nobuteru Taniguchi who, driving a more powerful car on the touge, said " I'll get away with turbo power on the straights."

• "The most important thing is balance." (Tsuchiya says this word in every race action.)

• "There's tension on the track; now you see how hard it is. You may be fastest on the street but, unless you know the track, you're not good enough to sit behind the wheel." (Tsuchiya speaking to Shikiba, subtitled portion, Shuto Kusokou Trial MAX)

• "I'm afraid that if I raced you on the street I'd push you to your death." (Tsuchiya speaks to Takahiro Yamanaka, subtitled portion, Shuto Kusokou Trial 2)

• "What is power without control?"

• "It's so fast it will make a dead man scream" (Tsuchiya describing the performance of the Mines R34 Skyline)

• "This is a Cefiro!" (Tsuchiya negatively describing the performance of the V35 Skyline)

• "The important thing is to keep trying"

Career results[link]

• 1977 Debut in Fuji Freshman series.
• 1977-1984 Ran selected entries in All Japan Touring Car championship.
• 1984 Fuji Freshman series race (Toyota AE86)= 6 wins
• 1985 All Japan Touring Car championship (Toyota AE86) 1st in Class 3
• 1986 Corolla Sprinter Cup-2 podium places
• 1987 All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic) -1 win
• 1988 Toyota Cup-1st overall
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (BMW E30) -3rd in Class 2
• Macau Guia race (BMW M3) -4th overall
• 1989 All Japan F3 championship
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (Ford Sierra Cosworth) -1 win
• 1990 All Japan Touring Car championship (Ford Sierra Cosworth)
  • Macau Guia race (Ford Sierra Cosworth)
  • New Zealand Touring Car series (Toyota)
• 1991 All Japan F3 championship (Ralt-Mugen)-10th overall
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (Nissan Skyline GT-R) -5th overall
• 1992 All Japan Touring Car championship (Nissan Skyline GT-R)
• 1993 All Japan Touring Car championship (Taisan Nissan Skyline GT-R) -1 win
  • Japan Endurance series (Honda Prelude) -2nd Tsukuba 12 Hours
• 1994 All Japan GT championship (Porsche 911T) -1 win
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic)
  • Suzuka 1000 km (Porsche 911T) -1st in class, 2nd overall
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) -18th overall
• 1995 All Japan GT championship (Porsche911TRSR)
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic)
  • Suzuka 1000 km (Honda NSX) -5th overall
  • Tokachi 12 Hours (Honda NSX) -1st overall
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) -1st in class
• 1996 All Japan GT championship (Honda NSX) -13th overall
  • Entered NASCAR Thunder Special race at Suzuka
  • Le mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) -3rd in class
• 1997 All Japan GT championship (Porsche 911/Dodge Viper)
  • Fuji InterTec race (Toyota Chaser)
  • Suzuka 1000 km (Lark McLaren F1 GTR) -9th overall
  • Entered NASCAR Thunder Special race at Suzuka
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Lark McLaren F1 GTR) -qualified 10th, retired from race
• 1998 All Japan Touring Car championship (Toyota Chaser) -7th overall
  • All Japan GT championship (Toyota Supra) -8th overall
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Toyota GT-One) -9th overall
  • NASCAR at the California Speedway.
• 1999 Japan Touring Car Championship (Advan Altezza Touring car).
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Toyota GT-One) -2nd overall
• 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours (Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S) -8th overall
• 2000-2003 he joined team ARTA racing an NSX once again in the All Japan GT championship.
• 2004-2005 studied in Australia to complete inter-2 course.

References[link]

1. ^ http://driftjapan.com/blog/drivers/keiichi-drift-king-tsuchiya/
2. ^ Books LLC, Books LLC (2010). Drifting Series: D1 Grand Prix, Formula D, Red Bull Drifting World Championship, Keiichi Tsuchiya, Nz Drift Series, D1nz, Option, Video Option. Drifting Series. General Books LLC. ISBN 9781158069118. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Touge Showdown 2 - AE86 vs Skyline GT-R - Hot Version International" on YouTube

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Keiichi Tsuchiya

• (Japanese) Official site
• IMDb profile
• AsianAthlete.com profile
• (Japanese) Bridgestone Automobile Radio
• Best Motoring International
• Drift Japan » Keiichi 'Drift King' Tsuchiya - Driver Profile and Overview