'' is the capital and the most populous city of
Saitama Prefecture in
Japan, situated in the south-east of the prefecture. Its area incorporates the former cities of
Urawa,
Ōmiya,
Yono and
Iwatsuki. It is a
city designated by government ordinance. Being in the
Greater Tokyo Area and lying 15 - 30
kilometres north of central
Tokyo, many of its residents commute into Tokyo.
Wards
Saitama has ten
wards (''ku''), which were assigned official colours as of April 2005:
Economy
Saitama Shintoshin.
Transportation
Saitama is a regional
transportation hub for both passengers and freight.
Ōmiya Station, part of the
Shinkansen high-speed train network, serves as the biggest railway
hub in the prefecture. The
Musashino and
Saitama Railway lines offer connections at other stations. The
Shuto,
Tokyo Gaikan and
Tōhoku expressways serve the city.
National Highway Routes
4,
16,
17, 122, 298 and 463 also serve the city.
The closest major airports are
Haneda Airport and
Narita International Airport, both about two hours away
[1].
Honda Airport in
Okegawa is for
general aviation and offers no scheduled transport services. Commuter helicopter flights to Narita Airport are offered from
Kawajima [1].
Politics and Government
The directly-elected, executive
mayor is Sōichi Aikawa, an
independent backed by the
Liberal Democratic Party and
Komeito. The city assembly of Saitama has 64 elected members.
Elections
★
Saitama mayoral election, 2005
Culture
Education
Universities
Junior Colleges
★
★ Urawa University Junior College
Professional Graduate School
Sports
Saitama is home to two
J. League football (soccer) teams: the popular
Urawa Red Diamonds, owned by
Mitsubishi, and
Omiya Ardija, owned by
NTT.
The city and
Tokorozawa are home to the Japan Professional
Basketball League team the
Saitama Broncos.
Mass media
Most of Saitama Prefecture's mass media presence is concentrated in this city. See
Mass media in Saitama Prefecture for details.
History
The city was founded on
May 1,
2001, and was designated on
April 1,
2003 as a
government ordinance. For the histories of Urawa, Ōmiya and Yono before the merger, see
Urawa-ku, Saitama#History,
Ōmiya-ku, Saitama#History and
Yono, Saitama#History, respectively.
On
April 1,
2005, it merged with the city of Iwatsuki to its east, which became a new
ward,
Iwatsuki-ku.
Origin of the name "Saitama"
The name "Saitama" originally comes from the Sakitama (埼玉郡) district of what is now the city of
Gyōda in the northern part of what is now known as Saitama Prefecture. "Sakitama" has an ancient history and is mentioned in the famous 8th century poetry anthology
Man'yōshū. The pronunciation has changed from Sakitama to Saitama over the years.
With the merger of
Urawa,
Ōmiya, and
Yono it was decided that a new name, one fitting for this newly-created prefectural capital, was needed. The prefectural name "Saitama" (埼玉県) was changed from
kanji into
hiragana, thus Saitama City (さいたま市) was born. It is the only prefectural capital in Japan whose name is always written in hiragana, and belongs to the list of
hiragana cities.
However, Saitama written in hiragana (さいたま市) actually finished in second place in public polling to Saitama written in kanji (埼玉市). Despite this, government officials decided to name the new city Saitama in hiragana, not kanji. In third place in the poll was Ōmiya (大宮市). In fourth was Saitama (彩玉市), written with an alternative kanji for "sai" (彩) which means "colorful". The "sai" (埼) used in the prefectural name is a rare form of a common character (崎) that means cape or promontory.
Visitor attractions
★
Hikawa Jinja
★ Akigase Park
★ Besshonuma Park
★ Sonic City
★
Saitama Stadium 2002
★
Saitama Super Arena
★
John Lennon Museum
★
Railway Museum (opening October 2007))
External links
★
Official website in Japanese
★
Official website in English
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