Nagaoka City

A trowel-drawn kirin stands on the kura.

Kote-e storehouse, Settaya

Photo by Norio NAKAYAMA (CC BY-SA 2.0)

01 ／ Paleolithic

Stone tools shaped like chiselstook the site's name.

The site stands on a terrace overlooking the confluence of the Shinano and Uono rivers, and about 100,000 stone tools have been found there. Its distinctively shaped engraving-knife tools were classified as the Araya type, named after the site. The city calls it a Late Paleolithic site from about 16,000 years ago. It became a National Historic Site in 2004.

About 100,000 stone tools
About 16,000 years ago (city)
National Historic Site, 2004

02 ／ Tunnel

With pickaxes halved in blade and handle,local people dug through a mountain.

At Komatsukura in Yamakoshi, local people dug the tunnel through, starting with a ground-breaking ceremony in 1933 and breaking through on the night of 1 May 1949, after sixteen years that included a four-year pause. The shaft was narrow, so they used single-edged pickaxes. It was 922 m long at breakthrough and is 877 m now. It became a Selected Civil Engineering Heritage site in fiscal 2006.

Ground-breaking ceremony, 1933
Breakthrough, 1949
Selected Civil Engineering Heritage, fiscal 2006

03 ／ Flame pottery

The name flame pottery belongs toone pot found at Umataka.

In 1936 a crushed pot was found in a dwelling pit at Locality 7 of the Umataka Site. For its cockscomb-shaped handles and the sawtooth ridges on its rim, it was called flame pottery from early on, and it is part of the Umataka Site finds designated an Important Cultural Property. The city says the name flame pottery belongs to this one pot alone.

Found in a dwelling pit, 1936
Important Cultural Property, 1990
Site is a National Historic Site

Living here

Tokyo Station to Nagaoka Station in 88 minutes.

about 270,000 people
90 min to a city centre
Shinkansen stops here

Nagaoka Station on the Joetsu Shinkansen is reached from Tokyo Station without changing trains, in 88 minutes by the fastest daily service. The city says Aore Nagaoka, where the city hall's general service counter is, is a 3-minute walk from the station. Between 2005 and 2010 neighboring towns and villages were merged into the city, giving it its present area.

People living here: 266,936people
Area: 891.05km²
Households: 104,489households
Rent (average for rentals): 50,143yen
Healthcare: 11 hospitals ／ 182 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Population from 2010 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-04-01 に編入合併（中之島町・越路町・三島町・山古志村・小国町）。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。2006-01-01 に編入合併（栃尾市・和島村・寺泊町・与板町）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。2010-03-31 に編入合併（川口町）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —86 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Nagaoka City in Japan37.446°N 138.851°E

to TokyoJoetsu Shinkansen88min

Travel times follow JR東日本「駅の時刻表」の上越・北陸新幹線下り（timetables.jreast.co.jp/2610/timetable-v/004d1.html・004d2.html。2026-10-14 に読んだ）。東京駅発・長岡駅着の列を、運転日が『全日』のものだけ数えた。逆向きは同じ上り（004u1.html・004u2.html）で長岡駅発・東京駅着。 (checked 2026-10-14). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 11 municipalities.

Territory of Nagaoka City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

59.2km

小千谷市, 魚沼市, 三条市, 柏崎市, 見附市, 燕市, 出雲崎町, 刈羽村, 十日町市, 弥彦村, 新潟市

Nagaoka City isthis kind of town.

01Settaya's kote-e storehouse is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, with vividly colored kote-e of kirin, phoenixes and the zodiac animals around its eaves and openings
02The Araya site gave its name to a type of stone tool and is a National Historic Site, and the Nakayama Tunnel was dug through by local people over sixteen years
03A pot found at the Umataka Site in 1936 is called flame pottery, and the city says the name belongs to that one pot alone

See the town as it is now.

Facebookcity.nagaoka ↗

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Nagaoka City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗