Toyama City 富山市

Toyama is a university city with a population of 400,000 and the administrative center of the prefecture. It´s located on the coast of the Sea of Japan, on Toyama Bay. Toyama-jô castle, built in the mid-16th century, was once the seat of a branch family of the MAEDA clan. On 2 August 1945, shortly before the end of the Second World War, the city of wooden houses was almost completely destroyed in an air raid. The city changed with the new mayor in 2002. The population decline and the ageing of Japanese society were to be taken into account. The aim was to improve public transport to create a more densely populated city in which residents, especially the elderly, would not have to rely on their cars. The city invested in road construction, but also in the extension of the old tramway.