Niigata City is on the river mouth of the Shinano River, which is the longest river in Japan. This river mouth has been used as a good port for a long time.
In old days Japanese Government, whose name was Tokugawa Bakuhu, had been closing this country for two hundred and sixty years. But the time had changed, many western ships had come to Japan. European and American governments strongly required to open Japan. Then Tokugawa Bakuhu opened five harbors in 1868, one of those was Niigata Port, others were Yokohama, Kobe and so on.
After that Niigata City has been developing as the greatest cosmopolitan city in the west coast of Japan.