Nagano City, located in the former Shinano Province, developed in the Nara period (AD 710 to 794) as a temple town (monzen machi).

The city of Nagano is home to Zenkō-ji, a 7th-century Buddhist temple that is listed as a Japanese National Treasure.

Between 1553 and 1564, during the Sengoku Period, the Age of Warring States, Nagano was the site of a series of conflicts known as the Battles of Kawanakajima.

Nagano City is an important historical location and an industrial center, as well as a travel destination and a hub for accessing surrounding sightseeing spots, including Japan's onsen-bathing, the snow monkeys in Yamanouchi, and the world-class ski resorts of Hakuba, Shiga Kogen and Nozawaonsen.

In order to facilitate access to Nagano in advance of the Games, the city was linked to the high-speed shinkansen train network.

[7] In addition to a transport legacy, several world-class venues of the 1998 Winter Olympics were built, including M-Wave, Japan's first International Skating Union (ISU) standard indoor 400m double-track,[8] which happens to be one of the largest hanging wooden-roof structures in the world.

The city receives heavy winter snow totaling 2.57 metres (101 in) from December to March, but it is less gloomy during these cold months than the coast from Hagi to Wakkanai.

In the southern section of Nagano City are a series of over 500 burial mounds at Ōmuro Kofun - a National historic site - dating from the 5th-8th centuries.

Post station on the Hokkoku Kaidō highway connecting Edo with the Sea of Japan coast.

Following the Meiji restoration and the creation of the municipalities system on April 1, 1889, the modern town of Nagano was established.

The city borders expanded on July 1, 1923, with the annexation of the neighbouring town of Yoshida and villages of Sarita, Miwa and Komaki.

The city again expanded on April 1, 1954, by annexing neighbouring villages of Asahi, Furusato, Yanagihara, Wakatsuki, Asakawa, Naganuma, Amori, Odagiri, Imoi and Mamejima.

On October 16, 1966, the city again expanded by annexing the neighbouring towns of Kawanakajima, Matsushiro and Wakaho, and villages of Shinonoi, Kohoku, Shinko, and Naniai.

[24] Nagano has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 39 members.

The city and neighboring towns of Shinano, Iizuna, and Ogawa contribute 11 members to the 57-member Nagano Prefectural Assembly.

The gross value of goods and services of the economy in the city of Nagano in 2016 was estimated to be 4,438,580,046,000 yen, approximately US$40.5 billion.

[27] In 2016, Nagano City had 183,710 people in employment, with 21.1% of workers in wholesale or retail, 14.%% in healthcare and welfare, and 11.6% are in manufacturing.

[28] Other major employers include hotels and restaurants, 9% of employees, and construction industry, 7.9%; farming and forestry workers comprised 1.1% of the working population.

Local bus provider, Alpico Kōtsū, departs from a dedicated office across the street from the Zenkō-ji Exit of Nagano Station.