Prefecture/City:	Niigata City
Capital/Prefecture:	Niigata Prefecture
Governor/Mayor:	Akira Shinoda
Area:	726.1 square km (280.4 square miles)
Population:	810,117 as of December 2013
Flower:	Tulip
Tree:	Willow

Business & Industry:

The city of Niigata is an important transportation hub offering international flights to Khabarovsk in Russia and other places in Northeast Asia. Farming and fishing are the core industries and its food self-sufficiency ratio is 63%.

Tourism & Culture:

The city of Niigata has numerous tourist activities and attractions, including rafting, orchards, museums, centuries-old shrines and temples, breweries, scenic spots, observatories and hot springs. It is also home to a variety of folk arts, including drumming, kagura spiritual dancing, jinku traditional singing, kiyari labor songs and oiwake opera-like singing.

Famous for:

As the junction where the Shinano and Agano rivers enter the Japan Sea, Niigata has marshlands, lagoons and sand dunes. Sagata Lagoon was registered a Ramsar Convention Wetland in 1997.