Niigata (新潟市; - shi) is the capital of the Préfecture of Niigata to the Japan. The city became a free port after the restoration Meiji. It was municipalisée the 1e April 1889.

Geography

Niigata is today more the big city along the coast of the Mer of Japan.

In 2003, the city counted a population estimated at 776 ' 365 people with a density of 2 ' 282.46 people per km ². The surface of the city is assembled to 649.95 km ².

History

The place of Niigata is inhabited since the Period Jōmon. According to the Nihonshoki, a fortress was built there towards 647. However the town of Niigata started to develop only at the 16th century when a port was built there.

Niigata thrived and was one of the five cities which were opened with the international business in 1868 at the time of a treaty signed with the the United States.

In 1929, the Bandai bridge was built on the Shinano river to connect the town of Niigata on bank is in Nuttari on western bank. The zone of the bridge became of this fact the center of Niigata and its agglomeration, which it is still today.

Niigata was one of the four cities with Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki with being selected for an atomic raid if Japan did not capitulate during the Second world war.

During the Sixties, several cases of the Maladie of Minamata were declared in Niigata. An important seism took place in the prefecture of Niigata the October 23rd 2004 (see the principal article Earthquake of Chuetsu), and another, magnitude 6,3 on the scale of Richter, on July 16th, 2007 (see Earthquake in Japan of July 2007).

Districts

• Kita-ku (北区)

• Higashi-ku (東区)
• Chūō-ku (中央区)
• Kōnan-ku (江南区)
• Akiha-ku (秋葉区)
• Minami-ku (南区)
• Nishi-ku (西区)
• Nishikan-ku (西蒲区)

Transport

The airport of Niigata is located at 15 km in the north of the center of the city. It serves in particular Osaka (8 times not day), Sapporo (2 times per day), Fukuoka (once by day), Naha (once by day), Kobe (3 times per day), Nagoya (7 times per day) and the island the Sadomasochistic one (3 times per day). The international destinations are Khabarovsk (2 times per week), Vladivostok (2 times per week), Harbin (4 times per week), Seoul (daily), Shanghai (3 times per week) and Guam (twice by week)

Twinnings

• Galveston (the United States) since the January 28th 1965

• Khabarovsk (Russia) since the April 23rd 1965
• Harbin (China) since the December 17th 1979
• Vladivostok (Russia) since the February 28th 1991
• Birobidzhan (Russia)

The city also maintains the relations with:

• Kingston upon Hull
• Nantes

Famous people born in Niigata

• Yaichi Aizu (poet, calligrapher and historian)

• Sakaguchi Ango (author)
• Shu Fujisawa (writer)

• Takahashi Rumiko (Mangaka)

• Obata Takeshi (Mangaka)

• Mikami Masashi (actor)

• Ito Toshihito (actor)

• Sato Megumi (high jumper)

External bonds

• Official site