It is Saitama's largest municipality in terms of surface area and shares borders with Tokyo, Yamanashi, Nagano and Gunma Prefectures.

[2] Because the region is not suitable for growing rice, many people have traditionally depended on sericulture (silk farming).

Limestone from Mount Bukō, which rises south of the city center, is another major source of income for the region.

The city is shifting its focus toward sightseeing, taking advantage of its rich natural environment and relative closeness to the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Chichibu has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 22 members.

In terms of national politics, the city is part of Saitama 11th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

It attracts crowds from Chichibu, Saitama prefecture, neighboring Tokyo, and the Kantō region.

Other attractions of the city include: As a picturesque area within fairly easy reach of Tokyo, Chichibu has been much photographed.

Rokusuke Ei, a popular essayist, was convinced that Chichibu, the site of a peasant uprising in 1884, inspired the author, W. S. Gilbert, to set the opera in Japan.

Other Japanese researchers have concluded that Gilbert may simply have heard of Chichibu silk, an important export in the 19th century.