Saitama

Saitama (sī`tämä), prefecture (1990 pop. 6,405,319), E central Honshu, Japan. Urawa (the capital), Omiya, and Kawaguchi are the chief cities. Largely a fertile plain, Saitama is an agricultural region, which also has machinery and textile industries.

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Saitama 

a prefecture of Japan, on the island of Honshu. Sai-tama has an area of 3,800 sq km and a population of 268,000 (1973), more than 50 percent of which is urban. The capital is Urawa.

Saitama Prefecture is in the Kanto economic region. It accounts for 4 percent of the value of Japan’s total industrial production (1972). The leading branches of industry are electrical machine building (15 percent of the value of the prefecture’s industrial production), transport machine building (15 percent), general machine building (10 percent), and aircraft construction. The chemical industry is also important. Iron ore is mined in the prefecture.

The total cultivated area in Saitama is 136,000 hectares. The main crops are rice (240,000 tons harvested in 1972), wheat, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. Vegetables are also raised, including 59,000 tons of eggplant and 56,000 tons of cucumbers (1972). Tobacco and tea are cultivated. Saitama Prefecture has a substantial sericulture industry and also livestock and poultry raising. There is logging in the mountains. Saitama’s lakes are used for fish breeding (carp and eel).