City History

Saitama City was founded on May 1, 2001 and was designated on April 1, 2003 by government ordinance. 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 district of what is now the city of Gyoda 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'yoshu. The pronunciation has changed from Sakitama to Saitama over the years.

With the merger of Urawa, Omiya, and Yono it was decided that a new name, one fitting for this newly-created prefectural capital, was needed. The prefectural name "Saitama" was changed from kanji into hiragana, thus Saitama City was born. It is the only prefectural capital in Japan whose name is always written in hiragana.

However, Saitama written in hiragana finished in second in public polling to Saitama written in kanji. Despite this, government officials decided to name the new city Saitama: written in hiragana, not kanji. In third place in the poll was Omiya. In fourth was Saitama, written with an alternative kanji for "sai" that means "colorful". The "sai" used in the prefectural name is a rare form of a common character that means cape or promontory.