Saitama (さいたま市 Saitama-shi, Japanese: [saꜜitama]) is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture, Japan. 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 to 30 kilometres north of central Tokyo, many of its residents commute into Tokyo. As of 1 February 2016, the city had an estimated population of 1,226,656, and a population density of 5830 persons per km². Its total area is 217.43 square kilometres (83.95 sq mi)
The name “Saitama” originally comes from the Sakitama District (埼玉郡) 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’.
The city is located 20 to 30 km north of central Tokyo, roughly at the center of the Kantō Plain. Situated in approximately the center 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 the Arakawa River along with those created by small rivers such as the Moto-Arakawa River, Shiba River, and Ayase River. The ceme online of the area mostly resides on the Ōmiya Plateau lying in the north-south direction. Dispersed in this region, major rivers flow southward, almost paralleling to one another.
