with the merger of urawa, ōmiya, and yono it was decided that a new name, one fitting for this newly-created prefectural capital, was needed. the prefectural name "saitama" (埼玉県) was changed from kanji into hiragana, thus saitama city (さいたま市) was born. it is the only prefectural capital in japan whose name is always written in hiragana, and belongs to the list of hiragana cities.