Sayama (狭山市 Sayama-shi) is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 January 2021, the city had an estimated population of 149,826. During the Kamakura period, the area developed as a post station on the Kamakura Kaidō highway, the dividing point on the routes to Kōzuke Province and Shimotsuke Province. The town of Irumagawa was established within Iruma District with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on 1 April 1889. On 1 July 1954, Irumagawa merged with the neighbouring villages of Mizutomi, Kashiwahara, Okutomi, Hirokane, and Iruma to create the city of Sayama. The city was the location of the Sayama Incident, a 1963 murder and trial which resulted in the false accusation and conviction of an innocent man, a member of the Burakumin minority group, of murder. Sayama is one of the major industrial centres of Saitama Prefecture, although it is also a bedroom community with over 15% of its population commuting to Tokyo for work. Along with neighbouring Iruma, the city is a well-known tea-growing region producing Sayama Tea.