Current Time in Nagaoka, Japan

Nagaoka lies in Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast of central Honshu, spread across the plain of the Shinano River, the longest river in the country. Mountains rise to the east and south, and the wide flat valley around the city is covered with rice paddies that turn from bright green to gold through the year. This is snow country, and winter brings heavy falls that bury the streets, while summers are hot and humid.

The city has a population of around two hundred and fifty thousand and is the second largest in the prefecture. It is a centre of precision engineering, machine tools, electronics and metalworking, and the surrounding countryside produces some of Japan's finest rice, along with sake brewed in dozens of local breweries and koi carp raised in mountain ponds and exported worldwide.

Nagaoka grew as a castle town of the Makino clan during the Edo period. Its most famous story belongs to the Boshin War of 1868, when the domain fought on the losing side and the town was destroyed. In the ruined aftermath a neighbouring domain sent a gift of a hundred sacks of rice, and rather than eat it the local leader Kobayashi Torasaburo sold it to found a school, declaring that education would rebuild the future. The tale of the hundred sacks of rice became a national parable of investing in learning. The city was devastated again by an American air raid on the first of August 1945, and once more by a powerful earthquake in the Chuetsu region in 2004, recovering each time.

Those events are commemorated by the greatest event in the city's calendar, the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival held each August beside the Shinano River. It is regarded as one of the three finest firework displays in Japan, launched as a memorial to the victims of the war and the earthquake and as a prayer for peace. Its enormous shells, including the famous phoenix sequence that unfolds across the entire sky above the river, draw around a million spectators over two nights.

Other attractions include the Nagaoka War Damage Exhibition Hall, the museum devoted to Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, who was born here, the reconstructed castle site, and the snow-covered slopes and hot springs of the surrounding mountains. In winter the nearby village of Tokamachi and the terraced rice fields of Yamakoshi are magical, and the region's contemporary art triennial has placed installations throughout the countryside.

The Joetsu Shinkansen brings Tokyo within about ninety minutes, expressways cross the region, and local lines serve the mountain valleys. Nagaoka University of Technology and the Nagaoka National College of Technology give the city a strong reputation in engineering education, in keeping with the spirit of its famous rice parable.

Nagaoka is remembered for its fireworks, its rice and sake, and its long history of rebuilding after disaster through education and community effort.