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49-671: Miyashiro is located in central-west Saitama Prefecture. Saitama Prefecture Miyashiro has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa ) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Miyashiro is 14.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1408 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.7 °C. Per Japanese census data,

98-583: A county of the United States, ranking below prefecture and above town or village , on the same level as a city . District governments were entirely abolished by 1926. The bureaucratic administration of Japan is divided into three basic levels: national, prefectural, and municipal. Below the national government there are 47 prefectures, six of which are further subdivided into subprefectures to better service large geographical areas or remote islands. The municipalities (cities, towns and villages) are

147-588: A compact territory in the surrounding area, but beyond that sometimes a string of disconnected exclaves and enclaves, in some cases distributed over several districts in several provinces. For this reason alone, they were impractical as geographical units, and in addition, Edo period feudalism was tied to the nominal income of a territory, not the territory itself, so the shogunate could and did redistribute territories between domains, their borders were generally subject to change, even if in some places holdings remained unchanged for centuries. Provinces and districts remained

196-452: A few municipalities to Tokyo in the 1890s/1900s (see below) and several smaller, 20th century changes through cross-prefectural municipal mergers or transfers of neighbourhoods, Saitama had reached its present extent. In the modern reactivation of districts as administrative unit in 1878/79, Saitama was subdivided into originally 18 districts based on the ancient divisions of Musashi, but with only nine (joint) district government offices, and

245-669: A few years later. As of today, towns and villages also belong directly to prefectures ; the districts no longer possess any administrations or assemblies since the 1920s, and therefore also no administrative authority – although there was a brief de facto reactivation of the districts during the Pacific War in the form of prefectural branch offices (called chihō jimusho , 地方事務所, "local offices/bureaus") which generally had one district in their jurisdiction. However, for geographical and statistical purposes, districts continue to be used and are updated for municipal mergers or status changes: if

294-474: A governor ([ken-]chiji) who is directly elected to four-year terms since 1947. The current incumbent is Motohiro Ōno , a former DPFP member of the Diet who was elected in August 2019 with centre-left support (CDP, DPFP, SDP) and 47.9% of the vote against centre-right supported (LDP, Kōmeitō) former baseball player Kenta Aoshima (44.9%) and three other candidates. Also as in all prefectures, prefectural by-laws,

343-570: A hierarchy of feudal holdings. In the Edo period, the primary subdivisions were the shogunate cities, governed by urban administrators ( machi-bugyō ) , the shogunate domain ( bakuryō , usually meant to include the smaller holdings of Hatamoto, etc.), major holdings ( han /domains ), and there was also a number of minor territories such as spiritual (shrine/temple) holdings; while the shogunate domain comprised vast, contiguous territories, domains consisted of generally only one castle and castle town, usually

392-463: A town or village (countrywide: >15,000 in 1889, <1,000 today) is merged into or promoted to a [by definition: district-independent] city (countrywide: 39 in 1889, 791 in 2017), the territory is no longer counted as part of the district. In this way, many districts have become extinct, and many of those that still exist contain only a handful of or often only one remaining municipality as many of today's towns and villages are also much larger than in

441-461: Is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu . Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (January 1, 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km (1,466 sq mi ). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture to the north, Nagano Prefecture to the west, Yamanashi Prefecture to the southwest, Tokyo to the south, Chiba Prefecture to

490-556: Is bordered by Tokyo , Chiba , Ibaraki , Tochigi , Gunma , Nagano , and Yamanashi Prefectures. It is located central-west of the Kanto region, measuring 103 km from east to west and 52 km from north to south. At 3,797.75 km , it ranks as the ninth-smallest prefecture. The eastern border with Chiba Prefecture is defined by the Edo River . The northern and north-western border lines with Gunma Prefecture are marked by

539-414: Is situated in a rich natural environment. The region is very popular among residents of Saitama and neighboring prefectures for short trips, as it is easily accessible via the railroad network. Kobaton ( コバトン ) is the prefectural mascot, a Eurasian collared dove, which is also the prefectural bird. Kobaton was made originally as the mascot of the fifty-ninth annual national athletic meeting held in

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588-700: The Meiji Restoration , after being briefly united with other rural shogunate territories in Musashi under Musashi governors (Musashi chikenji) , many former shogunate/hatamoto territories in Northwestern Musashi became Ōmiya Prefecture (大宮県, Ōmiya-ken ), soon renamed to Urawa (浦和県, -ken ) in 1868/69, with some territories held by other short-lived prefectures ( Iwahana  [ ja ] /later mainly Gunma and Nirayama  [ ja ] /later mainly Shizuoka, Kanagawa and Tokyo). In

637-573: The North Tama and North Toshima districts of Tokyo. In the creation of modern cities, towns and villages in 1889, these districts were subdivided into originally 40 towns and 368 villages . The first city in Saitama was only established in 1922 when Kawagoe Town from Iruma District became Kawagoe City . The prefectural capital, Urawa in North Adachi, remained a town until 1934. After

686-787: The Tone River and the Kanagawa River and the drainage divides of the Arakawa River and Kanagawa River. The southwestern border is defined by the drainage divides of the Arakawa River, Tama River , and Fuefuki River . The eastern section of the southern border line, however, does not overlap with any geological feature. The topography of Saitama Prefecture is largely divided by the Hachiōji Tectonic Line, which runs through Kodama , Ogawa , and Hannō , into

735-455: The replacement of -han with -ken , the associated territorial consolidation (removal of feudal era ex-/enclaves) and first wave of prefectural mergers in 1871/72, Oshi and Iwatsuki prefectures were merged into Urawa; after consolidation, it consisted of the entire Saitama District and Northern parts of Adachi and Katsushika (But at that time, "major and minor districts", 大区, daiku and 小区, shōku , served as administrative subdivisions) and

784-613: The 19th century is part of Musashi Province in the Ritsuryō (or ryō-system; ritsu stands for the penal code, ryō for the administrative code) Imperial administration of antiquity (see Provinces of Japan and the 5 (go) capital area provinces (ki)/7 (shichi) circuits (dō) system) which was nominally revived in the Meiji restoration but has lost much of its administrative function since the Middle Ages. Saitama District (Saitama-gun)

833-618: The 2022 election) in the House of Councillors . The latest prefecture-wide election was the House of Councillors by-election in October 2019 to fill the seat vacated by Motohiro Ōno; it was won by the previous governor Kiyoshi Ueda who has a centre-left background (DPJ member of the House of Representatives for Saitama's 4th district before his term as governor), but without full-scale party backing and without any other major party-backed candidate in

882-685: The Chinese division ). Under the Taihō Code, the administrative unit of province ( 国 , kuni ) was above district, and the village ( 里 or 郷 sato ) was below. As the power of the central government decayed (and in some periods revived) over the centuries, the provinces and districts, although never formally abolished and still connected to administrative positions handed out by the Imperial court (or whoever controlled it), largely lost their relevance as administrative units and were superseded by

931-463: The Edo period "three capitals" Edo/Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka comprised several urban districts. (This refers only to the city areas which were not organized as a single administrative unit before 1889, not the prefectures Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka which had initially been created in 1868 as successor to the shogunate city administrations, but were soon expanded to surrounding shogunate rural domain and feudal holdings and by 1878 also contained rural districts and in

980-545: The Great Shōwa mergers of the 1950s, the number of municipalities in Saitama had shrunk to 95, including 23 cities by then. The Great Heisei mergers of the 2000s pushed the number below 70. After World War II , as Tokyo expanded rapidly and modern transportation allowed longer commutes, the lack of available land in Tokyo led to the rapid development of Saitama Prefecture, where the population has nearly tripled since 1960. Most of

1029-538: The Greater Tokyo Area, offering transfers to and from Shinkansen high-speed lines. The Musashino serves as a freight bypass line as well as a passenger line. Chichibu Railway the northwestern, Seibu Railway the southwestern, Tobu Railway the midwestern and the eastern, the New Shuttle and Saitama Railway the southeastern parts of the prefecture respectively. The Tsukuba Express line crosses

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1078-682: The Kantō Mount Range, including the Hiki Hills and Sayama Hills. The latter are mainly surrounded by alluvial flood plains. In the southeastern portion of the prefecture, the Ōmiya Plateau stands in a southeastward direction, sandwiched by the Furutone River to the east and the Arakawa River to the west. The western side of the prefecture belongs to the Kantō Mountain Range with Chichibu Basin located in its center. The area to

1127-495: The Meiji era. The districts are used primarily in the Japanese addressing system and to identify the relevant geographical areas and collections of nearby towns and villages. Because district names had been unique within a single province and as of 2008 prefecture boundaries are roughly aligned to provincial boundaries, most district names are unique within their prefectures. Hokkaidō Prefecture , however, came much later to

1176-470: The Saitama area. At the end of the early modern Edo period , large parts of present-day Saitama were part of the shogunate domain ( baku-ryō ) or the often subsumed holdings of smaller vassals ( hatamoto -ryō) around Edo, major areas were part of the fiefdoms ( -han ) Kawagoe (ruled by Matsui/ Matsudaira , fudai ), Oshi (Okudaira-Matsudaira, fudai ) and Iwatsuki ( Ōoka , fudai ); few territories were held by domains seated in other provinces. In

1225-464: The Western part of present-day Saitama. In 1873, Iruma was merged with Gunma (capital: Takasaki Town, Gunma District) to become Kumagaya (capital: Kumagaya Town, Ōsato District). But Kumagaya was split up again in 1876: The area of Kōzuke province came back as a second Gunma prefecture, and the territories in Musashi province/former Iruma prefecture were merged into Saitama. Except for the transfer of

1274-458: The budget and the approval of important prefectural administrative appointments such as the vice-governors or members of the public safety commission, are the prerogative of the assembly which is elected directly to four-year terms on an independent electoral cycle. That may or may not be synchronized with the gubernatorial term; currently, it is not, as it is still part of the unified local election cycle (Saitama gubernatorial elections already left

1323-559: The case of Osaka, one other urban district/city from 1881.) District administrations were set up in 1878, but district assemblies were only created in 1890 with the introduction of the district code (gunsei) as part of the Prussian-influenced local government reforms of 1888–90. From the 1890s, district governments were run by a collective executive council ( gun-sanjikai , 郡参事会), headed by the appointed district chief ( gunchō ) and consisting of 3 additional members elected by

1372-466: The cities in the prefecture are closely connected to downtown Tokyo by metropolitan rail, and operate largely as residential and commercial suburbs of Tokyo. In 2001, Urawa City was merged with Ōmiya City and Yono City to create Saitama City ( Saitama-shi ; but unlike the district or the prefecture written with Kana ) as the new enlarged capital. It became the prefecture's first (and so far only) designated major city in 2003. Saitama Prefecture

1421-436: The district assembly and one appointed by the prefectural governor – similar to cities ( shi-sanjikai , headed by the mayor) and prefectures ( fu-/ken-sanjikai , headed by the governor). In 1921, Hara Takashi , the first non-oligarchic prime minister (although actually from a Morioka domain samurai family himself, but in a career as commoner-politician in the House of Representatives), managed to get his long-sought abolition of

1470-562: The districts passed – unlike the municipal and prefectural assemblies which had been an early platform for the Freedom and People's Rights Movement before the Imperial Diet was established and became bases of party power, the district governments were considered to be a stronghold of anti-liberal Yamagata Aritomo 's followers and the centralist-bureaucratic Home Ministry tradition. The district assemblies and governments were abolished

1519-530: The east of the prefecture, are largely disused following the introduction of motorised land transport. Traces of water transport are found on the Tone River , which forms the border between Saitama and Gunma Prefecture, and on the Arakawa River , which includes a tourist attraction in Nagatoro . See Mass media in Saitama Prefecture . Like all prefectural administrations, Saitama's is headed by

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1568-655: The lowest level of government; the twenty most-populated cities outside Tokyo Metropolis are known as designated cities and are subdivided into wards. The district was initially called kōri and has ancient roots in Japan. Although the Nihon Shoki says they were established during the Taika Reforms , kōri was originally written 評 . It was not until the Taihō Code that kōri came to be written as 郡 (imitating

1617-542: The most important geographical frame of reference throughout the middle and early modern ages up to the restoration and beyond – initially, the prefectures were created in direct succession to the shogunate era feudal divisions and their borders kept shifting through mergers, splits and territorial transfers until they reached largely their present state in the 1890s. Cities (-shi) , since their introduction in 1889, have always belonged directly to prefectures and are independent from districts. Before 1878, districts had subdivided

1666-410: The number of districts was formally merged down to nine in 1896/97: North Adachi , Iruma , Hiki , Chichibu , Kodama , Ōsato , North Saitama , South Saitama , and North Katsushika . Niikura (also known as Niiza, Shiki or Shiragi) , one of the original 1878/79 modern districts, was first merged into North Adachi in 1896, but a substantial part of its former territory was subsequently transferred to

1715-490: The population of Miyashiro has recently plateaued after a long period of growth. The villages of Monma and Suka were created within Minamisaitama District, Saitama with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The two villages were merged on July 20, 1955 to form the town of Miyashiro. Ina was elevated to town status on November 1, 1970. The origin of the town's name comes from

1764-433: The precursors to the 1889 shi . Geographically, the rural districts were mainly based on the ancient districts, but in many places they were merged, split up or renamed, in some areas, prefectural borders went through ancient districts and the districts were reorganized to match; urban districts were completely separated from the rural districts, most of them covered one city at large, but the largest and most important cities,

1813-681: The prefecture in 2004, and was inaugurated as mascot of the prefecture in 2005 with an inauguration ceremony and a letter of appointment from the governor. A wheelchair-using version of Kobaton also exists. Districts of Japan In Japan, a district ( 郡 , gun ) is composed of one or more rural municipalities ( towns or villages ) within a prefecture . Districts have no governing function, and are only used for geographic or statistical purposes such as mailing addresses. Cities are not part of districts. Historically, districts have at times functioned as an administrative unit . From 1878 to 1921 district governments were roughly equivalent to

1862-481: The race. Saitama Prefecture has a number of sister city relationships with states and a province as listed below (in chronological order). The sports teams listed below are based in Saitama. Most of the popular tourist sites in Saitama are located in the northwestern part of the prefecture, which is known as the Chichibu Region. This region mostly consists of a hilly and moderately mountainous area, and

1911-617: The shrines of the largest villages. "Miya" was taken from Himemiya shrine (姫宮神社) in Himemiya village and "shiro" from Konoshiro shrine (身代神社) in Suka village. Miyashiro has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 14 members. Miyashiro, together with the city of Shiraoka, contributes one member to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics,

1960-420: The southeast, and Ibaraki Prefecture to the northeast. Saitama is the capital and largest city of Saitama Prefecture, with other major cities including Kawaguchi , Kawagoe , and Tokorozawa . According to Sendai Kuji Hongi ( Kujiki ), Chichibu was one of 137 provinces during the reign of Emperor Sujin . Chichibu Province was in western Saitama. The area that would become Saitama Prefecture in

2009-507: The southeastern corner of the prefecture. Haneda Airport and Narita International Airport are the closest major civil airports. Commuter helicopter flights from Kawajima to Narita Airport are offered. Honda Airport for general aviation , and the JASDF's Iruma Air Base and Kumagaya Air Base . Rivers and canals, including those developed in the Edo period (17th – 19th centuries) in

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2058-550: The town is part of Saitama 11th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan . The economy of Miyashiro is primarily agricultural. [REDACTED] Tōbu Railway - Tōbu Isesaki Line / Tōbu Skytree Line [REDACTED] Tōbu Railway - Tōbu Nikkō Line Miyashiro is not located on any national highway or expressway. [REDACTED] Media related to Miyashiro, Saitama at Wikimedia Commons Saitama Prefecture Saitama Prefecture ( 埼玉県 , Saitama-ken )

2107-638: The towns and villages in each district : Radial transportation to and from Tokyo dominates transportation in the prefecture. Circular routes were constructed as bypasses to avoid congestion in central Tokyo. The Jōban , Kan-etsu , Shuto , Tōhoku , and Tokyo-Gaikan expressways form parts of the nationwide expressway network. National highway Routes 4 , 16 , and 17 are important routes in Kantō region. Ōmiya Station in Saitama City forms East Japan Railway Company 's northern hub station in

2156-641: The unified cycle in 1949). In the last round in April 2019 , the LDP maintained its outright majority with 48 of the 93 seats in the assembly. As in most prefectures, the Saitama assembly was established legally in 1878 and first convened 1879. In the National Diet , Saitama's directly elected delegation consists of 15 members of the House of Representatives and currently seven (four per class, but only raised from three in 2019, so it will only grow to eight after

2205-562: The west of the basin features high peaks such as Mount Sanpō (2,483 m; 三宝山, Sanpō-yama according to the GSI, but often read Sanpō-zan ) on the Western border with Nagano, Saitama's highest mountain, and Mount Kōbushi (2,475 m), in which the Arakawa River has its source. Most of the land is contained in Chichibu Tama Kai National Park . The area to east of the basin consists of relatively low mountains. These are

2254-461: The western mountain area and the eastern lowland area. The altitude, highest on the western side, gradually lowers eastward from mountain ranges to hills to plateaus to lowlands. The eastern lowlands and plateaus occupy 67.3% of the area. The eastern side, part of the Kantō Plain , can be further divided into nine separate expanses of hills and ten plateaus. The former occupy small areas neighboring

2303-414: The whole country with only few exceptions (Edo/Tokyo as shogunate capital and some island groups). In 1878, the districts were reactivated as administrative units, but the major cities were separated from the districts. All prefectures (at that time only -fu and -ken ) were – except for some remote islands – contiguously subdivided into [rural] districts/counties ( -gun ) and urban districts/cites ( -ku ),

2352-531: Was one of Musashi's 21 ritsuryō districts . In the fifth year of the Keiun era (708), deposits of copper were reported to have been found in the Chichibu District of what is now Saitama Prefecture. The Saitama area was historically known as a fertile agricultural region which produced much of the food for the Kantō region. During the Edo period , many fudai daimyōs ruled small domains within

2401-890: Was renamed to Saitama . The government of the prefecture was to be set up in Iwatsuki Town, Saitama District in November 1871 by the Dajōkan ordinance to set up the prefecture, but ultimately remained in Urawa's previous prefectural government seat in Urawa Town in Adachi District. Kawagoe Prefecture was consolidated with other territories into Iruma Prefecture  [ ja ] (入間県, Iruma-ken ; government seat unchanged from Kawagoe domain/prefecture: Kawagoe Town, Iruma District) which consisted of 13 districts of Musashi in

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