Saitama, Saitama

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**Saitama City**
**さいたま市**
Saitama City's location in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Location
Country	Japan
Region	Kantō
Prefecture	Saitama Prefecture
Physical characteristics
Area	217.49 km² (84 sq mi)
Population (as of July 1, 2006)
Total	1,182,115
Density	5,435/km² (14,076.6/sq mi)
Symbols
Tree	Zelkova serrata(Keyaki)
Flower	Primula(Sakura-sou)
Saitama City Government Office
Mayor	Sōichi Aikawa
Address	〒330-9588 Saitama-shi, Urawa-ku Tokiwa, 6-4-4
Phone number	+81-48-829-1111
Official website: Saitama City

Saitama (さいたま市, -shi^?) 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.

1 Wards
2 Economy
- 2.1 Transportation
3 Politics and Government
- 3.1 Elections
4 Culture
5 History
- 5.1 Origin of the name "Saitama"
6 Sister cities
7 Visitor attractions
8 References
9 External links
10 References

Saitama has ten wards (ku), which were assigned official colours as of April 2005:

■Chūō-ku	中央区	(Rose red)
■Iwatsuki-ku	岩槻区	(Ochre)
■Kita-ku	北区	(Dark green)
■Midori-ku	緑区	(Green)
■Minami-ku	南区	(Lemon yellow)
■Minuma-ku	見沼区	(Sky blue)
■Nishi-ku	西区	(Blue)
■Ōmiya-ku	大宮区	(Orange)
■Sakura-ku	桜区	(Cherry blossom pink)
■Urawa-ku	浦和区	(Red)

Saitama Shintoshin.

Further information: Transportation in Greater Tokyo

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].

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.

Saitama mayoral election, 2005

ja:Mejiro University
Nihon University Faculty of Law
The Open University of Japan Omiya Study Center
Saitama University
ja:Shibaura Institute of Technology
ja:University of Human Arts and Sciences
ja:Urawa University

ja:Kokusai Gakuin Saitama Junior College
Urawa University Junior College

ja:Omiya Law School

Saitama is home to two J. League football (soccer) teams: the popular Urawa Red Diamonds, formerly owned by Mitsubishi, and Omiya Ardija, formerly owned by NTT.

The city and Tokorozawa are home to the Japan Professional Basketball League team the Saitama Broncos.

Most of Saitama Prefecture's mass media presence is concentrated in this city. See Mass media in Saitama Prefecture for details.

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.

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.

Saitama has six sister cities.