The nameSaitama originally comes from the Sakitama District (埼玉郡) of what is now the city ofGyōda 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 anthologyMan'yōshū. The pronunciation has changed from Sakitama to Saitama over the years.
With the 2001 merger ofUrawa,Ōmiya, andYono, 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 fromkanji intohiragana, thus Saitama City (さいたま市) was born. It is the only prefectural capital in Japan whose name is always written inhiragana, and belongs to the list ofhiragana cities.
However, Saitama written inhiragana (さいたま市) actually finished in second place in public polling to Saitama written inkanji (埼玉市). Despite this, government officials decided to name the new city Saitama inhiragana, notkanji. In third place in the poll was Ōmiya (大宮市). In fourth was Saitama (彩玉市), written with an alternativekanji forsai (彩) which means "colorful". Thesai (埼) used in the prefectural name is a rare form of a common character (崎) that means "cape" or "promontory".
The city is located 20 to 30 km north of central Tokyo, roughly at the center of theKantō Plain. Situated in the southeast of Saitama Prefecture, the city is topographically comprised by lowlands and plateaus, at mostly less than 20 m above sea level, with no mountain ranges or hills within the city boundaries. The western portion of the city lies on the lowland created by theArakawa River along with those created by small rivers such as theMoto-Arakawa River,Shiba River, andAyase River. The rest of the area mostly resides on theŌmiya Plateau lying in the north-south direction. Dispersed in this region, major rivers flow southward, almost paralleling to one another.
Saitama has ahumid subtropical climate (KöppenCfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Saitama is 15.2 °C (59.4 °F). The average annual rainfall is 1,371.3 mm (53.99 in) with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 27.0 °C (80.6 °F), and lowest in January, at around 3.9 °C (39.0 °F).[3]
Climate data for Saitama (1991−2020 normals, extremes 1976−present)
Pink: former Urawa Blue: former Ōmiya Green: former Yono Yellow: former Iwatsuki
The city was founded on May 1, 2001, and was designated on April 1, 2003 as agovernment ordinance. For the histories of Urawa, Ōmiya and Yono before the merger, see:
The executivemayor, who is directly elected, isHayato Shimizu, an independent. He defeated the incumbent Sōichi Aikawa (backed by theLiberal Democratic Party andKomeito) in the 2009 Saitama mayoral election with backing by theDPJ.[7] He has won four subsequent mayoral elections, most recently inMay 2025.[8]
Saitama's economy is principally constituted by commercial business. The city is one of many commercial centers of the Greater Tokyo area and serves Saitama Prefecture, North Kanto, and northeast Honshu.
Saitama is also home to various manufacturers, exporting automotive (Honda manufactures theHonda Legend atSayama Plant), food, optical, precision and pharmaceutical products.Calsonic Kansei, a global automotive company is headquartered in the city.[9]Iwatsuki is famous for manufacturing ofhinamatsuri dolls and ornatekabuto (samurai helmets).
The political and administrative center of the city is Urawa Ward (Urawa Station area), and the economic, commercial, and transportation center is Omiya Ward (Omiya Station area). Located approximately 20 km to 35 km from central Tokyo, Saitama City is a satellite city and bed town in the Tokyo metropolitan area, with a day-night population ratio of 92.8 in 2010, which is less than 100 despites being the prefectural capital and an ordinance-designated city (the southeastern part of Saitama Prefecture).
Of the 747,000 commuters permanently residing in the city, 175,000, or 23.5%, commute to the Tokyo Special Wards area, making the city home to many so-called "Saitama Tomin". On the other hand, the former Urawa and Omiya cities were designated as core business cities in 1988, and in 2000,Saitama New Urban Center was opened and local branches of various central government offices were relocated from Tokyo. The southeastern area of Saitama Prefecture tends to be a suburb of Tokyo, and the day/night population ratio is particularly low in Minami ward and Midori ward, which are close to the center of Tokyo. In part for this reason, the southern part of the city, which is closer to Tokyo, tends to have a higher population density than the northern part. In addition, population tends to be concentrated along the Keihin Tohoku Line, Utsunomiya Line, Takasaki Line, and Saikyo Line, which directly connect to central Tokyo, and where both conditions overlap, there is a series of high population density areas of over 20,000 people/km2 from Minami ward to Urawa and Chuo ward.
Urban functions such as administration, commerce, and business are concentrated around major stations such as Urawa, Omiya, and Saitama-new urban stations, which have formed the central urban area since the time of the former Urawa and Omiya cities. The former Omiya City developed as a railroad town and commercial center, andOmiya Station in particular is one of the busiest and most prominent terminal stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area, with all Shinkansen bullet trains stopping there. TheUrawa area is also known as an educational district with Saitama University and Saitama Prefectural Urawa High School, as well as an upscale residential area. The Iwatsuki Station area on theTobu Noda Line (Tobu Urban Park Line) is also a part of the former Iwatsuki City's central urban area. The center of the former Yono City is Yono-honmachi Station
Representative station isUrawa Station. Saitama is a regionaltransportation hub for both passengers and freight train lines.Ōmiya Station, part of theShinkansen high-speed train network, serves as the biggest railwayhub in the prefecture.
![From top left: Saitama Stadium 2002, Urawa Parco [ja], Gyokuzouin [ja], Hikawa Shrine, Saitama New Urban Center, Saitama Super Arena, Musashi-Urawa Station](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSaitama_city_montage.jpg)
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