Honjō

Honjō is a city on the northwestern border of Saitama Prefecture, Japan, beside the upper reaches of the Tone River and facing Gunma Prefecture. It had an estimated 77,900 residents in 2021 over about 90 square kilometres. The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with many Kofun period burial mounds, and the Honjo clan ruled a castle town here in the Kamakura period. In the Edo period Honjo-juku was a post station on the Nakasendo highway, and sericulture shaped the late Edo and early Meiji economy. The town became a city in 1954 and absorbed Kodama in 2006. Today it has light and precision manufacturing and agriculture, acts as a regional commercial centre, hosts a Waseda University campus and has a Brazilian school for local residents.