Yōga, Tokyo

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Yōga (用賀) is a neighborhood in Setagaya, Tokyo. It sits at a busy junction where the Tōmei Expressway meets the elevated Shibuya branch of the Metropolitan Expressway, a site often shown in traffic reports. Yōga Station on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line serves the area, and Tokyu Bus routes provide local access. Two traffic cameras atop the SBS tower overlook the junction, the Yōga toll gate, and other parts of the neighborhood.

In the Edo period, Yōga was a post-town on the Ōyama Kaidō, the road between Edo and Oyama Mountain. The name Yōga comes from a Sanskrit root related to yoga; the Buddhist temple Shinpuku-ji used the name Yuga-san.

Kinuta Park is a large green space established in 1957. Located about 10 minutes from Yōga Station, it covers 39 hectares (96 acres) and offers sports facilities, including baseball fields, a basketball court, and swimming pools (25 m and 50 m, plus a kids’ pool and a diving pool). The Setagaya Art Museum, opened in 1986, sits on a corner of Kinuta Park and has a permanent collection focused on photography, featuring works by Kineo Kuwabara and Kōji Morooka.

Yōga is noted for its schools, including Sakuramachi Elementary, which had one of Setagaya’s largest enrollments in the early 1990s, Seisen International School (an all-girls Catholic international school), and MITA International School. Public schools are run by the Setagaya Board of Education. The zoning is as follows: 1–2 chōme go to Sakuramachi Elementary; 3–4 chōme go to Kyōsai Elementary and Yōga Junior High; parts of 1–2 chōme are zoned to Fukasawa Junior High or Seta Junior High. The neighborhood around Yōga Station is a busy residential area with supermarkets such as OK Store and Fuji, as well as smaller shops, a butcher, a liquor shop, and fish shops.