Arakawa, Tokyo to the southwest, Bunkyo. South of Arakawa is Taito, and southeast is Sumida. The area was mainly agricultural in the Edo period. In 1651, Kozukappara, the Tokugawa's largest execution ground (now located next to Minami-Senju station), was built. Beginning in the Meiji era, the area became industrial as factories were built on the water front. In 1932, it became one of the 35 wards of Tokyo City. MIAT Mongolian Airlines's Tokyo Branch Office is on the fifth floor in the Tachibana Building in Arakawa. Iseki, a tractor and engine equipment manufacturer has its Tokyo head office in the ward. Arakawa
Japanese gunboat Sumida (1939) commissioned into the Republic of China Navy as the "Chiang Hsi" (). She was removed from the Japanese navy list on 3 May 1947. Captured during the Chinese Civil War by the People’s Republic of China, she was commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy on 30 November 1949 as the gunboat "Fu Jiang" (). She was finally scrapped in the 1960s. Japanese gunboat Sumida (1939) "Sumida" was the second of two vessels in the river gunboats authorized under the 3rd Naval Armaments Supplement Programme of 1937. "Sumida" had a hull with an overall length of and width of ,