About Niigata

Importance of Niigata from urban planning point of view

Niigata city is a traditional port town which prospered by sea and river transportation. Now, it has a population of 

 

800,000 people. The extremely rational grid pattern street system in this city was built in 1655. And a temple district 

 

where about 20 temples are lined up also formed in the same period. Both are still remaining. At the end of Edo 

 

period, this city was one of the earliest opened port in Japan, along with Hakodate, Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagasaki. 

 

The old custom house is famous for gi-yofu (quasi-western-style) architecture. The Bandai Bridge was constructed 

 

with reinforced concrete in early Syowa period. They are designated as national important cultural properties. Niigata 

 

city was little damaged by WWⅡ, which is rare in the same scale cities excluding Kyoto, Kanazawa and Sapporo. 

 

Therefore, in the center of this city, there are over 1000 historic buildings, for example, “Machiya” 

 

(traditional merchants' house), “Ryotei” (high class Japanese traditional restaurant), and western-style buildings and 

 

so on.In the suburb, some extremely wealthy landowner’s mansion are dotted among the beautiful country side. 

 

Additionally, citizens’ activities for urban issues are energetic. Also in other areas in the prefecture, there are many 

 

good research field such as castle town, post town and Cultural landscape.