Saitama, Saitama

Saitama (Japaneseさいたま 市, - shi) is the youngest city in Japan with 1,245,682 million inhabitants (February 1, 2014) on an area of ​​217.49 square kilometers. It lies north of the Japanese capital Tokyo, in the south of the prefecture Saitama in the Kanto plain and is the seat of the prefectural government.

Saitama is part of the large metropolitan area of Tokyo, it is the Shinkansen just 15 minutes from Tokyo. The largest centers of public life centered around the stations Omiya ( with 310 400 passengers per day, the largest train station in the prefecture ), Shintoshin ( with the Saitama Super Arena ) and Urawa. Some matches of the 2002 World Cup were held at Saitama Stadium, which is also home to the premier league team Urawa Reds.

  • 2.1 Saitama Shintoshin
  • 2.2 Population development
  • 3.1 Town twinning
  • 4.1 Sport
  • 4.2 Universities and colleges
  • 4.3 Attractions
  • 5.1 traffic 5.1.1 train
  • 5.1.2 Underground
  • 5.1.3 road

Geography

Administrative divisions

The city is divided into ten districts (区-ku ), each of which in April 2005 has an official color:

Formerly city Ōmiya:

  • ■ Minuma -ku
  • ■ Kita- ku
  • ■ Ōmiya -ku
  • ■ Nishi -ku

Formerly city Yono:

  • ■ Chūō -ku

Former Urawa city:

  • ■ Sakura -ku
  • ■ Urawa -ku
  • ■ Minami -ku
  • ■ Midori -ku

Formerly Iwatsuki city:

  • ■ Iwatsuki -ku

The administrative center with the town hall is located in Urawa -ku. Otherwise, Saitama is very decentralized, as has coalesced cities carpet neither an urban center nor any other legible urban structure (its geographical center is approximately at Saitama Shintoshin ), also it goes on its borders seamlessly into the neighboring towns.

Adjacent Cities and Towns

  • A geo
  • Kawagoe
  • Kawaguchi
  • Kasukabe
  • Koshigaya
  • Warabi
  • Toda
  • Hasuda
  • Fujimi
  • Shiki
  • Asaka

By Saitama flows Arakawa.

History

Saitama was created by decree on 1 May 2001 from the cities of Urawa, Yono and Ōmiya. On 1 April 2005 was also the adjacent city Iwatsuki incorporated. So today is the tenth largest city in Saitama Japan.

With the union of the cities Urawa, Omiya and Yono, the newly created prefectural capital should also get a new name. In a public survey sat Saitama prefecture name (埼 玉), written in the usual Chinese characters kanji by. Nevertheless, the officials decided to written in the syllabary hiragana version (さいたま) with the same pronunciation, which took second place in the survey. Third place was the name Omiya, Saitama fourth place (彩 玉), written with an alternative kanji for sai (彩), meaning colorful. Saitama Prefecture is the only capital city that writes itself in Hiragana only and a member of Hiraganastädte.

The name Saitama derives from the name of the district Sakitama (埼 玉 郡, Sakitama -gun ) ago Sakitama lay in the northern part of present-day Saitama Prefecture and is called now Gyoda. Sai (埼) is a rarer version of the character崎( sai ) and means mountain foothills, tama (玉) stands for the ball or ball.

Saitama Shintoshin

As early as 1986 began with plans to build a new joint center for the new prefectural capital Saitama, Saitama Shintoshin (さいたま 新 都心), the new Saitama city center. From 1991 onwards, was to open in 2000 on a 47 hectare site in the south of Ōmiya, on the border with Urawa and Yono, a ( 's municipal usually haphazard Japan) unique and distinctive urban ensemble of four office and hotel high-rises, a telecommunications tower, a new S-Bahn station, a shopping center and entertainment venue Saitama Super Arena to the public square keyaki - Hiroba. Saitama Shintoshin is one of the major Japanese urban projects, comparable to Tokyo's high-rise district Nishi -Shinjuku and Minato Mirai 21 in Yokohama.

A total of approximately 1,800,000 square meters were built. The telecommunications tower NTT DoCoMo Saitama Building (NTTドコモ 埼玉 ビル) is 218.50 meters, the tallest building in the whole Saitama Prefecture, the country Axis Tower (ランド· ·アクシスタワー) with its 168.30 meters the tallest building. The neighboring Saitama Government Tower 1 ( 153.90 meters), Saitama Government Tower 2 ( 138.70 meters) and Saitama Shintoshin MPT Building ( 129.80 meters) followed by the courts two, three and four of the tallest buildings. The planned construction of more than 300 meters high Saitama Towers (and thus theoretically tallest building in Japan ) has not been realized until now.

Population Development

Saitama is with 1,193,926 inhabitants currently the tenth largest city in Japan, 599 037 men and 594 889 women living in a total of 494 112 households. The average age is 39.8 years ( 38.9 for men and 40.7 for women ).

Policy

Mayor of Saitama is Hayato Shimizu. He was elected on 25 May 2009 with the support of the Democratic Party (DPJ ) against the previous incumbent Soichi Aikawa, who had ruled since the founding of the city in 2001, and confirmed on May 19, 2013 against an LDP Kōmeitō -supported opposition candidates in the Official. The City Council ( Saitama shigikai ) has regularly 60 members who are elected in the districts by simple non- transferable vote, most recently in the regional elections in April 2011. Strongest faction, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP ) with 20 members, the DPJ faction has 14 MPs; other fractions are the Kōmeitō with ten mandates, the Communist Party of Japan with seven and the fraction Kaikaku Forum ( "Reform Forum " ), also with seven deputies formed by LDP members (as of May 19, 2013).

Twinning

Saitama maintains international partnerships with the following cities:

  • Mexico Toluca, Mexico, since 1979, at that time Urawa
  • People's Republic of China, Zhengzhou, China, since 1981 with Urawa
  • New Zealand Hamilton, New Zealand, since 1984 Urawa
  • United States Richmond ( Virginia), USA, since 1994 with Urawa
  • Canada Nanaimo, Canada, since 1996, Iwatsuki
  • United States Pittsburgh, United States, since 1998 with Ōmiya

And partnerships with the following towns in Japan:

  • Japan Minami- Aizu (formed from nango, partnership since 1975 with then Urawa, and Tateiwa, since 1982 Ōmiya ).
  • Japan Minami- Boso, since 1981 with Iwatsuki
  • Japan Minami- Uonuma, since 1988 with Yono
  • Japan Minakami, since 2004.
  • Kamogawa Japan, since 2004.

Culture and sights

Sports

Saitama is home to two football clubs who play in the professional league J. League: The current champions Urawa Reds plays in the occasion of the Football World Cup 2002 built Saitama Stadium and in the smaller Urawa Komaba Stadium, the local rivals Omiya Ardija Omiya Park Stadium.

The second team the Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team 's home since 1989 Lotte Urawa Baseball Stadium ( Lotte Urawa KYUJO ).

Universities and Colleges

  • Saitama University

Attractions

  • Hikawa Shrine

Infrastructure

Traffic

Train

  • JR Tohoku Shinkansen, Station Omiya, after Tōkyō or Hachinohe
  • JR Joetsu Shinkansen, Station Omiya, after Tōkyō or Niigata
  • JR Nagano Shinkansen, Station Omiya, after Tōkyō or Nagano
  • JR Takasaki Line, stations Urawa, Saitama Shintoshin, Omiya, and Miyahara, to Ueno (Tokyo) or Takasaki
  • JR Keihin - Tohoku Line, stations Minami- Urawa, Urawa, Kita- Urawa, Saitama Shintoshin and Omiya, Yokohama
  • JR Saikyo Line, stations Musashi - Urawa, Naka- Urawa, Minami- Yono, Yono - Honmachi, Kita- Yono and Omiya, to Shinjuku and Odaiba
  • JR Kawagoe Line, stations Sashiogi, Nisshin and Omiya, after Kawagoe
  • JR Utsunomiya Line, stations Urawa, Saitama Shintoshin, Omiya, Toro, Higashi- Omiya to Utsunomiya and Aomori
  • JR Musashino Line, stations Nishi- Urawa, Musashi Urawa, Minami- Urawa and Higashi- Urawa, after Funabashi and Fuchu
  • Tōbu Noda Line Funabashi after

Subway

  • Saitama Kosoku train

Road

  • Tōhoku Expressway: to Aomori
  • National Road 17: by Tōkyō or Niigata
  • National Road 16 to Yokosuka, Yokohama, Chiba Hachioji or
  • National Road 122: by Tōkyō or Nikko
  • Nakasendō
  • Sangyoh Dohro

Personalities

  • Toshirō Muto (* 1943 in Urawa, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan)
  • Mutsumi Aoki (* 1959 in Saitama, visual artist )
  • Koichi Wakata (* 1963 in Ōmiya, Spaceman )
  • Asa Higuchi (* 1970 in Urawa, manga artist )
  • Takashi Sorimachi (* 1973 in Urawa, television actor and singer )
  • Yuji Ide ( born 1975 in Urawa, racers )
  • Daijiro Katō (* 1976 in Urawa, † 2003 motorcycle racer )
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