Mount Tsukuba has been a place of pilgrimage since at least the
Heian period. During the
Edo period, parts of what later became the city of Tsukuba were administered by a junior branch of the
Hosokawa clan at
Yatabe Domain, one of the
feudal domains of the
Tokugawa shogunate. With the creation of the modern municipalities system after the
Meiji Restoration on April 1, 1889, the town Yatabe was established within
Tsukuba District, Ibaraki. 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. Tsukuba Science City became operational in the 1980s. The
Expo '85 world's fair was held in the area of Tsukuba Science City, which at the time was still divided administratively between several small towns and villages. Attractions at the event included the
Technocosmos, which at that time was the world's tallest
Ferris wheel. On November 30, 1987 the town of Yatabe merged with the neighboring towns of Ōho and Toyosato (from
Tsukuba District)) and the village of Sakura (from
Niihari District) to create the city of Tsukuba. The neighboring town of Tsukuba merged with the city of Tsukuba on January 1, 1988. Followed by the town of Kukizaki (from
Inashiki District) on November 1, 2002. Therefore, Yatabe, Ōho, Toyosato, Sakura, Tsukuba and Kukizaki, correspond to the ancient towns and villages. By 2000, the city's 60 national research institutes and two national 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 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology; the Electrotechnical Laboratory; the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory; and the
National Institute for Materials Science. The city has an international flair, with about 7,500 foreign students and researchers from as many as 133 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 low-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. On April 1, 2007 Tsukuba was designated a
Special city with increased autonomy. Following 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". On May 6, 2012, Tsukuba was struck by a
tornado that caused heavy damage to numerous structures and left approximately 20,000 residents without electricity. The storm killed one 14-year-old boy and injured 45 people. The tornado was rated an F-3 by the
Japan Meteorological Agency, making it the most powerful tornado to ever hit Japan. Some spots had F-4 damage. ==Government==