Saitama

Sister cities

• Zhengzhou
• Nanaimo
• Pittsburgh
• Minamiaizu
• Toluca de Lerdo
• Hamilton

History

The city was founded on May 1, 2001, and was designated on April 1, 2003 as a government ordinance. For the histories of Urawa, Ōmiya and Yono before the merger, see: * Urawa-ku, Saitama * Ōmiya-ku, Saitama and * Yono, Saitama, respectively. On April 1, 2005, Saitama absorbed the city of Iwatsuki to its east, which became a new ward, Iwatsuki-ku. The city evaded the major impact of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

Geography

The city is located 20 to 30 km north of central Tokyo, roughly at the center of the Kantō Plain. Situated in the southeast 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 rest 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. * Saitama Prefecture ** Ageo ** Asaka ** Fujimi ** Hasuda ** Kasukabe ** Kawagoe ** Kawaguchi ** Koshigaya ** Shiki ** Shiraoka ** Toda ** Warabi Saitama has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Saitama is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . |source 2 = Time and Date (dewpoints, 1985-2015) }}

Most-observed species

• Brown-eared Bulbul

  Hypsipetes amaurotis (Temminck, 1830) · Aves
  6,921
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow

  Passer montanus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,607
• Eastern Spot-billed Duck

  Anas zonorhyncha Swinhoe, 1866 · Aves
  5,982
• White-cheeked Starling

  Spodiopsar cineraceus (Temminck, 1835) · Aves
  5,849
• Large-billed Crow

  Corvus macrorhynchos Wagler, 1827 · Aves
  5,820
• Oriental Turtle-Dove

  Streptopelia orientalis (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  5,551
• Cinereous Tit

  Parus cinereus Vieillot, 1818 · Aves
  5,251
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  5,182

Most recent

• M 5.7 — 2026-06-26
  7 km N of Oshino, Japan
• M 5.8 — 2026-06-26
  3 km SE of Yokoshiba, Japan
• M 5.5 — 2026-06-16
  4 km NW of Noda, Japan
• M 4.2 — 2026-05-29
  3 km ESE of Mobara, Japan
• M 4 — 2026-05-24
  3 km W of Fussa, Japan
• M 4.1 — 2026-05-22
  10 km ENE of Kasama, Japan