Saitama Prefecture

Saitama-ken 埼 玉 県
Basic data
Administrative headquarters :	Saitama
Region :	Kanto
Main island :	Honshu
Area :	3,797.75  km²
Water content:	0.5  %
Residents :	7,337,330 (October 1, 2019)
Population density :	1932 inhabitants per km²
Counties :	9
Municipalities :	63
ISO 3166-2 :	JP-11
Governor :	Motohiro Ōno
Website:	www.pref.saitama.lg.jp
Symbols
Prefecture flag :
Prefecture tree :	Japanese zelkove
Prefecture flower :	Siebold's primrose
Vogel prefecture :	Turkish dove
Fish prefecture :	Pungitius sp.
Prefecture song :	Saitama-kenka ("Song of Saitama Prefecture")
Butterfly :	Neozephyrus japonicus
Mascot :	Kobaton
Citizens Day:	14th November

The Saitama prefecture ( Jap. 埼玉県 , Saitama-ken ) is a prefecture of Japan . It is located in the Kantō region in the greater Tokyo area . Its administrative seat is the city of Saitama .

Saitama Prefecture connects to Tokyo Prefecture to the north , and especially Saitama City and the east of the prefecture are a beddotaun ( ベ ッ ド タ ウ ン , bed town in Japanese English), a large sleeping city for Tokyo . The largest train station with around 377,000 passengers per day (2017) is Ōmiya . Kawagoe and Tokorozawa use more than 100,000 a day, many other stations more than 50,000. Important connections to Tokyo are the Keihin-Tōhoku , Saikyō , Utsunomiya , Tōjō main , Seibu-Ikebukuro , Seibu-Shinjuku and Saitama-Kōsoku lines .

geography

Surrounded by the seven neighboring prefectures Tokyo, Chiba , Ibaraki , Tochigi , Gunma , Nagano and Yamanashi , Saitama is an inland prefecture without a coast in the mid-west of the Kanto plain . The whole of Saitama is located within a radius of 100 kilometers from the center of Tokyo. Saitama extends 103 kilometers east-west and 52 north-south. It occupies an area of ​​3,797.25 square kilometers (about 1% of Japan), making it 39th of the 47 prefectures in the country. Saitama's landscape features high mountains in the west that gradually flatten out to the plain to the east. 32.5% of the area is forested, 23.1% is agriculture, 18.3% building, 8.5% roads, 5.0% water and waterways and 12.7% is used for other purposes. In 2001 Saitama had 75 days of clear sunshine (every fifth day on average), more than any other prefecture in Japan ( Chiba has the second most with 69 days, Okinawa is last with only seven).

Saitama was originally (along with parts of Tokyo and other areas) part of the ancient Musashi Province . It was known as an agricultural area that produced food for the Kanto region. After the Second World War , the expanding Tokyo, the scarcity of land in the capital and modern, fast and extensive train connections also saw Saitama grow.

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  outline

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  Arakawa

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  Nagatoro

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  View from the summit of Kumotori on the border between Saitama, Yamanashi and Tokyo

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  Road signs in Saitama Prefecture

history

Before the Meiji Restoration, the fiefdoms (- han ) Kawagoe , Oshi and Iwatsuki as well as areas directly controlled by the Shogun ( bakuryō ) were in the area of ​​today's prefecture (- ken ) Saitama . Shortly after the fall of the Tokugawa, the latter were placed under the new central government as Urawa Prefecture ( 浦 和 県Urawa-ken ; initially for a few months: Ōmiya). When the Han was abolished in 1871, it was expanded to include Oshi and Iwatsuki and renamed Saitama. It consisted of the circle (- gun ) Saitama , which formed the heartland of Oshi and Iwatsuki, and partly Adachi and Katsushika . The administrative seat was initially Iwatsuki, then Urawa . From the fiefdom of Kawagoe, the Iruma Prefecture was created in 1871 , comprising 13 districts, with its administrative headquarters in Kawagoe . 1873 Iruma was charged with the (first) Gunma Prefecture for Prefecture Kumagaya fused, but which was divided 1876 again; the former Iruma Prefecture was incorporated into Saitama, which, with the exception of minor changes, reached its current territory. The seat of the prefectural administration remained in Urawa, which was added to the new city of Saitama in 2001. After the modernization of the municipal regulations in 1889, there was initially no independent city (- shi ) in Saitama , the first became Kawagoe in 1922, the capital Urawa and other cities followed in the 1930s.

politics

The current main building of the prefectural administration, built in 1955, in today's Urawa district of Saitama city

Group strengths in the prefecture parliament
(as of July 16, 2019)

       

A total of 93 seats

• LDP : 50
• Mushozoku kenmin kaigi ("Independent Prefectural Citizens' Conference "): 14
• Saitama minshu forum ("Democratic Forum Saitama"; with KDP , DVP ): 12
• Kōmeitō : 9
• KPY : 6
• Mushozoku kaikaku no kai (~ "Independent Reform Association"): 1
• Non-attached: 1

Motohiro Ōno was elected to succeed Kiyoshi Ueda as governor of Saitama in August 2019 , previously a member of the DVP for Saitama in the Sangiin . Ōno won the gubernatorial election with the support of the national left opposition ( KDP , DVP, SDP ) and of Ueda with 47.9% of the vote against the former baseball player Kenta Aoshima (44.9%) and three other candidates, supported by LDP and Kōmeitō . The voter turnout recovered by around six points to 32.3%. In the 93-member parliament, the Liberal Democratic Party held its absolute majority with 48 seats in the unified regional elections in April 2019 .

In the national parliament , Saitama elects 15 members directly to the Shūgiin - most recently in 2017 twelve Liberal Democrats and one LDP-nominated Independent and one member each from the Constitutional Democratic Party and the "Party of Hope" (now DVP ) - and since 2019 four instead of the previous election three to the Sangiin . There are currently seven MPs temporarily representing the prefecture there; After the elections in 2016 , 2019 , the party reshuffles that have taken place since then and the by-election for Ōno's seat in October 2019, these are two Liberal Democrats, two Kōmeitō MPs, one member each from the KDP and KPJ and ex-governor Ueda, who is currently (as of October 2019) is nonpartisan and non-attached.

Saitama has twinned cities with the State of Mexico in Mexico (since 1979), Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China (1982), Queensland in Australia (1984), Ohio in the United States (1990) and the German state of Brandenburg (1998).

Administrative division

When today's community forms were introduced in 1889, Saitama was divided into 409 communities, of which 369 were villages. It was not until December 1922 that Kawagoe was the first municipality to be raised to the rank of a city. The number of municipalities fell in almost 100 years from 372 (1920), over 322 (1950) and 130 (1955) to the current 63 (since 2011). The current structure shows 40 urban districts ( shi ) and 22 district cities ( - machi ) as well as a village ( - mura ). The number of rural districts ( - gun ) has fallen from 18 to 8 since 1889. Of these, three currently consist of just one municipality each.

In the table below, the districts are shown in italics, below each (indented) the small towns within them. The first two digits of the authority code are, like everywhere else, the prefecture key of Fukui, the third digit indicates the type of authority as everywhere. Although the districts have not been administrative units since the 1920s, they are still used as a geographical division; They were therefore assigned round keys (divisible by 20), the municipalities belonging to the district received consecutive keys; however, due to mergers / incorporations / upgrading to -shi, gaps have arisen in many places. The independent cities are at the beginning of the table. Among them, the capital Saitama has been a “designated city” since 2003 . Seven other independent cities have a special form for large cities: Kawagoe, Kawaguchi and Koshigaya are "core cities" and Kasukabe, Kumagaya, Sōka and Tokorozawa are "exceptional cities " ( tokureishi ).

List of parishes in Saitama Prefecture

code	Surname		Area (in km²)	population	Population density (inh / km²) 3
	lat. transcription of the reading	jp. font	October 1, 2018 1	1st October 2019	October 1, 2015 3
11100	Saitama- shi	さ い た ま 市	217.43	1,307,931	1,263,979	5813.3
11201	Kawagoe- shi	川 越 市	109.13	354.249	350.745	3214.0
11202	Kumagaya- shi	熊 谷 市	159.82	194,959	198,742	1243.5
11203	Kawaguchi- shi	川口 市	61.95	592.373	578.112	9331.9
11206	Gyōda- shi	行 田 市	67.49	79,405	82.113	1216.7
11207	Chichibu- shi	秩 父 市	577.83	60,303	63,555	110.0
11208	Tokorozawa- shi	所 沢 市	72.11	341,409	340.386	4720.4
11209	Hanno- shi	飯 能 市	193.05	79,891	80,715	418.1
11210	Kazo- shi	加 須 市	133.30	110,921	112,229	841.9
11211	Honjō- shi	本 庄 市	89.69	77,045	77,881	868.3
11212	Higashimatsuyama- shi	東 松山 市	65.35	92,302	91,437	1399.2
11214	Kasukabe- shi	春日 部 市	66.00	229.932	232.709	3525.9
11215	Sayama- shi	狭 山 市	48.99	149.423	152.405	3110.9
11216	Hanyu- shi	羽 生 市	58.64	53,870	54,874	935.8
11217	Kōnosu- shi	鴻 巣 市	67.44	117,373	118.072	1750.8
11218	Fukaya- shi	深谷 市	138.37	141,966	143,811	1039.3
11219	Ageo- shi	上 尾市	45.51	225.907	225.196	4948.3
11221	Sōka- shi	草 加 市	27.46	250,939	247.034	8996.1
11222	Koshigaya- shi	越 谷 市	60.24	345,458	337,498	5602.6
11223	Warabi- shi	蕨 市	5.11	75,021	72,260	14140.9
11224	Toda- shi	戸 田 市	18.19	141.724	136,150	7484.9
11225	Iruma- shi	入 間 市	44.69	146.802	148,390	3320.4
11227	Asaka- shi	朝霞 市	18.34	142,138	136,299	7431.8
11228	Shiki- shi	志 木 市	9.05	75,265	72,676	8030.5
11229	Wakō- shi	和 光 市	11.04	83,895	80,826	7321.2
11230	Niiza- shi	新 座 市	22.78	164.083	162.122	7116.9
11231	Okegawa- shi	桶 川 市	25.35	74,345	73,936	2916.6
11232	Kuki- shi	久 喜 市	82.41	151.106	152.311	1848.2
11233	Kitamoto -shi	北 本市	19.82	65,478	67,409	3401.1
11234	Yashio- shi	八 潮 市	18.02	92,672	86,717	4812.3
11235	Fujimi- shi	富士 見 市	19.77	109.991	108.102	5468.0
11237	Misato- shi	三 郷 市	30.13	141,514	136,521	4531.1
11238	Hasuda- shi	蓮 田 市	27.28	61.507	62,380	2286.7
11239	Sakado- shi	坂 戸 市	41.02	101,531	101,679	2478.8
11240	Full -shi	幸 手 市	33.93	50,767	52,524	1548.0
11241	Tsurugashima -shi	鶴 ヶ 島 市	17.65	70,076	70,255	3980.5
11242	Hidaka- shi	日 高市	47.48	55.241	56,520	1190.4
11243	Yoshikawa- shi	吉川 市	31.66	71,763	69,738	2202.7
11245	Fujimino -shi	ふ じ み 野 市	14.64	112,689	110,970	7579.9
11246	Shiraoka shi	白 岡 市	24.92	52.094	51,535	2068.0
11300	Kitaadachi gun	北 足 立 郡	14.79		44,442	3004.9
11301	Ina- machi	伊奈 町	14.79	44,977	44,442	3004.9
11320	Iruma-gun	入 間 郡	89.79		87,447	973.9
11324	Miyoshi- machi	三 芳 町	15.33	38,393	38,456	2508.6
11326	Moroyama -machi	毛 呂 山 町	34.07	35,877	37,275	1094.1
11327	Ogose- machi	越 生 町	40.39	11,098	11,716	290.1
11340	Hiki-gun	比 企 郡	281.86		133,980	475.3
11341	Namegawa- machi	滑 川 町	29.68	19,515	18,212	613.6
11342	Ranzan- machi	嵐山 町	29.92	18,067	18,341	613.0
11343	Ogawa- machi	小川 町	60.36	29,137	31,178	516.5
11346	Kawajima -machi	川島 町	41.63	19,758	20,788	499.4
11347	Yoshimi- machi	吉 見 町	38.64	18,521	19,631	508.1
11348	Hatoyama- machi	鳩 山 町	25.73	13,631	14,338	557.3
11349	Tokigawa- machi	と き が わ 町	55.90	10,696	11,492	205.6
11360	Chichibu-gun	秩 父 郡	351.84		41.008	116.6
11361	Yokoze -machi	横 瀬 町	49.36	8059	8519	172.6
11362	Minano- machi	皆 野 町	63.74	9569	10133	159.0
11363	Nagatoro- machi	長 瀞 町	30.43	6809	7324	240.7
11365	Ogano -machi	小 鹿野 町	171.26	11,078	12,117	70.8
11369	Higashichichibu- mura	東 秩 父 村	37.06	2604	2915	78.7
11380	Kodama gun	児 玉 郡	109.99		55.502	504.6
11381	Misato- machi	美 里 町	33.41	10,909	11.207	335.4
11383	Kamikawa- machi	神 川 町	47.40	13,262	13,730	289.7
11385	Kamisato -machi	上 里 町	29.18	30,148	30,565	1047.5
11400	Ōsato-gun	大里 郡	64.25		34,081	530.4
11408	Yorii- machi	寄居 町	64.25	32,576	34,081	530.4
11440	Minamisaitama gun	南 埼 玉 郡	15.95		33,705	2113.2
11442	Miyashiro- machi	宮 代 町	15.95	34,133	33,705	2113.2
11460	Kitakatsushika-gun	北 葛 飾 郡	46.23		75,556	1634.4
11464	Sugito- machi	杉 戸 町	30.03	44.202	45,495	1515.0
11465	Matsubushi -machi	松 伏 町	16.20	28,953	30,061	1855.6
Shi-bu (proportion of urban districts)	市 部	2823.05	6,826,636	6,760,813	2394.9
Gun-bu (proportion of counties)	郡 部	974.70	496.009	505.721	518.9
11000	Saitama-ken	埼 玉 県	3797.75	7,337,330	7,266,534	1913.4

There are areas with an unclear borderline:

• between the town of Misato and the [city independent / "special"] District Katsushika of Tokyo (until the Second World War: [city / administrative] District Katsushika the city of Tokyo in Tokyo )
• between Chichibu City and Yokoze Township.

Sources
¹ Area data from 2017
² Estimated population 2018
³ Results of the 2015 census

Demographics

Population development of the communities in Saitama between the 2005 and 2010 censuses
Increase

> 10.0%

7.5-10.0%

5.0-7.5%

2.5-5.0%

0.0-2.5%

Decrease

0.0-2.5%

2.5-5.0%

5.0-7.5%

7.5-10.0%

> 10.0%

More than a million people (as of July 1, 2004), around a third of the working population of Saitama, use the proximity and good connections to the capital of Japan to commute there to work or to the university (around 10,000 commute to the Gunma prefectures , Tochigi , Ibaraki , Chiba and Kanagawa ). During the day, the population shrinks to 86.4% (almost 6 million, the lowest percentage of the prefectures surrounding Tokyo ), that of Tokyo increases to 122% (the highest in all of Japan).

The population has almost tripled since 1960, a total of 7,064,132 people lived in Saitama in 2001 (88,993 of them foreigners, just under 1.3%), the fifth highest population of all prefectures. The population growth has steadily shrunk from almost 30% in 1960 to 2.6% in 2001. With an average birth rate of 1.24 children per woman (in the mid-sixties it was 2.4), Saitama is slightly below the national average of 1.33. Emigration and immigration are roughly balanced: in 2001, 2.57% (177,307 people) of the population of Saitama left the prefecture, while 2.67% (184,174) moved in.

Population development in the prefecture

Census population

Census year	Total population	male population	female population	Gender ratio men to 1000 women	Area in km²	Population density per km 2
1920	1,319,533	641.161	678.372	945	3803.54	346.9
1925	1,394,461	682.052	712.409	957	3803.54	366.6
1930	1,459,172	718.779	740.393	971	3801.44	383.9
1935	1,528,854	753,802	775.052	973	3802.68	402.1
1940	1,608,039	798.321	809.718	986	3802.68	422.9
1945	2,047,261	955.753	1,091,508	876	3802.68	538.4
1950	2,146,445	1,049,695	1,096,750	957	3808.09	563.7
1955	2,262,623	1,110,083	1,152,540	963	3802.42	595.1
1960	2,430,871	1,200,573	1,230,298	976	3799.83	639.7
1965	3,014,983	1,511,947	1,503,036	1006	3799.84	793.5
1970	3,866,472	1,951,219	1,915,253	1019	3799.32	1017.7
1975	4,821,340	2,437,128	2,384,212	1022	3799.32	1269.0
1980	5,420,480	2,739,175	2,681,305	1022	3799.32	1426.7
1985	5,863,678	2,961,591	2,902,087	1021	3799.32	1543.4
1990	6,405,319	3,245,868	3,159,451	1027	3797.34	1686.8
1995	6,759,311	3,419,218	3,340,093	1024	3797.28	1780.0
2000	6,938,006	3,500,224	3,437,782	1018	3797.30	1827.1
2005	7,054,243	3,554,843	3,499,400	1016	3797.30	1857.7
2010	7,194,556	3,608,711	3,585,845	1006	3798.13	1894.2
2015	7,266,534	3,628,418	3,638,116	997	3797.75	1913.4

Culture and sights

In 2001, 101 million people visited or traveled to Saitama, but two thirds of them were not attracted by the sunshine, but festivals and events (e.g. in the Saitama Super Arena ), sports (especially Saitama Seibu Lions , Urawa Red Diamonds and Ōmiya Ardija ) as well amusement parks and museums (z. B. the Moomin World Metsä , the railway Museum Saitama or Ōmiya bonsai village ). Due to its development into a conglomerate of Tokyo dormitories , the advantages of which are fast connections to the center and to Tokyo’s workplaces and lower property prices, Saitama has less to offer in terms of tourism than Tokyo itself, Yokohama or Kamakura, for example . The mountainous northwestern part of the prefecture, the Chichibu region, is popular for short day trips. To the west of Saitama City is Kawagoe , which was an important defensive fortification of Edo during the Edo period (1603–1867) as a castle town . The entrance and main hall Honmaru Goten (built 1848) survived the extensive demolition of the castle during the Meiji period in the late 19th century. Kurazukuri Street is also well preserved with department stores from the Edo period (around 30 houses were elevated to the status of national cultural treasures), which have largely preserved the atmosphere of this period. The Kita-in , whose origins go back to the year 830, is also a national cultural treasure . After a fire in 1638 it was rebuilt and can still be seen today. The 540 stone Buddha statues in the temple garden are remarkable , each with an individual facial expression.

economy

In terms of revenue, Saitama has five main industries (2000: 61.1% of economic output). These are electronic systems (18.2%), transport machines (14.6%). Machinery (9.7%), Chemicals (9.6%), and Food (9.0%), each with revenues of more than one trillion yen. The total revenue of Saitama's economy in 2000 was 14.47 trillion yen . It holds the highest proportion of ice cream, pre-made meals, futons and mattresses, plastic packaging and dolls sold in Japan .

The statutory minimum wage in Saitama has been 898 yen since October 2018 (until October 2019) , making it one of the highest in the country - only in Tokyo (¥ 985), Kanagawa (¥ 983) and Osaka (¥ 936) is it currently higher, in Aichi it is also ¥ 898.

Since 2011 there has been a system in Saitama for emissions trading in greenhouse gases for large office and commercial buildings and industrial companies with high energy consumption (equivalent to ≥1.5 million liters of oil per year on a three-year average); In 2016, 574 companies were required to participate. The system was coupled with that of the neighboring prefecture of Tokyo so that emission rights can be traded across prefecture. By 2020, greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 21% compared to 2005.

Personalities

• Hanawa Hokiichi (* 1746 in Hokino (today: Kodama)), compiler of Gunsho Ruijū , a source collection of historical texts
• Ogino Ginko (1851–1913), first female doctor in Japan
• Shibusawa Eiichi (1840-1931), economist and engineer under the 15th Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu
• Gyōji Matsumoto (1934–2019), football player and coach
• Jun'ya Koga (* 1987), Japanese swimmer
• Park Il-kyu (* 1989), South Korean soccer player
• Takurō Kaneko (* 1997), Japanese football player
• Teruki Hara (* 1998), Japanese football player
• Daiki Hashioka (* 1999), Japanese football player
• ZERO, bass player for the band D'espairsRay

Film (selection)

Hayao Miyazaki's animated film My Neighbor Totoro (1988) is set in Tokorozawa.

The comedy Tonde Saitama (2019) is set predominantly in Saitama and deals with the assumption, which is widespread in Japanese society, that Saitama prefecture is culturally and touristically insignificant.

Web links

Commons : Saitama Prefecture  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Saitama Prefecture Administration : 埼 玉 県 近 現代史 主要 年表 （明治 元年 ～ 平 成 23 年） ( Memento from January 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ 地理 デ ー タ 集
3. ↑ Saitama Prefectural Parliament : Members by parliamentary group , accessed on August 5, 2019.
4. ↑ 埼 玉 県 知事 選 、 野 党 支援 の 大野 氏 初 当選 自 公 推薦 破 る . In: Asahi Shimbun Digital. August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019 (Japanese). 
5. ↑ 2019 埼 玉 県 知事 選 . In: NHK Senkyo Web. August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2019 (Japanese). 
6. ↑ Ex-lawmaker beats ruling bloc-backed rival in Saitama governor race . In: The Mainichi . August 25, 2019, accessed on August 26, 2019 . 
7. ^ Opposition picks up Saitama governorship . In: The Japan News . August 26, 2019, accessed on August 26, 2019 . 
8. ↑ 統一 地方 選 2019 埼 玉 県 議 選 各 党 議席 . In: NHK Senkyo Web. April 8, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2019 (Japanese). 
9. ^ Ex-governor wins Saitama upper house by election. In: The Japan News . October 28, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019 (Japanese). 
10. ↑ 埼 玉 県 推 計 人口 - 埼 玉 県 . 埼 玉 県 , October 1, 2019, accessed October 31, 2019 (Japanese). 
11. ↑ Kokudo Chiriin (GSI - Geospatial Information Authority of Japan), 平 成 30 年 全国 都 道 府 県 市区 町 村 別 面積 調 (Nationwide survey of all prefectures and municipalities 2018) , p. 34: 11 Saitama-ken (Japanese), accessed on 1 April 2019
12. ↑ [1] (Japanese) Retrieved April 1, 2019
13. ↑ e-stat (English), accessed on April 1, 2019
14. ↑ e-Stat database , accessed on April 1, 2019 (English)
15. ↑ Saitama Prefectural Administration : 埼 玉 県 の 最低 賃 金 ・ 最低 工 賃 , accessed April 6, 2019.
16. ↑ Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor : 地域 別 最低 賃 金 の 全国 一 覧 ; for the higher minimum wages applicable in individual sectors, see Saitama rōdō-kyoku: 埼 玉 県 の 最低 賃 金
17. ↑ 目標 設定 型 排出 量 取 引 制度 mokuhyō setteikei haishutsuryō torihiki seido . Saitama Prefectural Government , Environment Department, “Warming Action Unit” ( 温暖 化 対 策 課ondanka-taisaku-ka ), December 4, 2018, accessed April 6, 2019 (Japanese). 
18. ↑ 排出 量 取 引 制度 の 検 討 経 緯 と 東京 都 と の 連 携 haishutsuryō torihiki seido no kentō keii to Tōkyō-to to no rentai . Saitama Prefectural Government , Environment Department, “Warming Action Unit” ( 温暖 化 対 策 課ondanka-taisaku-ka ), February 21, 2019, accessed April 6, 2019 (Japanese). 
19. ↑ Japan - Saitama Target Setting Emissions Trading System. International Carbon Action Partnership , March 22, 2019, accessed April 6, 2019 . 

Coordinates: 35 ° 57 '  N , 139 ° 33'  E