The city has good transportation connections to the center of Tokyo, as with many areas of Chiba Prefecture.

Chiba Prefecture Tokyo Metropolis Ichikawa has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall.

During the Nara period, Ichikawa was the provincial capital of Shimōsa Province and is mentioned in the Man'yōshū.

In more recent history, the area was also the site of some minor battles during the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration and was promoted as a possible site for the new Diet of Japan by Katsu Kaishu, who envisioned a structure to be built on the Edogawa River similar to the Houses of Parliament in London along the River Thames.

Ichikawa has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 42 members.

Ichikawa during the Meiji period was considered a desirable location for politicians, industrialists and many cultural figures, and had the highest assessed land prices in Chiba Prefecture.

Many modern writers and poets have either lived in Ichikawa, or had written works set in Ichikawa, including Soseki Natsume, Shiki Masaoka, Akiko Yosano, Yukio Mishima, Nagai Kafu, Hisashi Inoue and Koda Rohan.