In the Edo Period, most of the area was tenryō territory under direct administration of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Following the Meiji restoration, the village of Sugata, was created within Taka District, Hyōgo with the creation of the modern municipalities system April 1, 1889.

Nishiwaki has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 16 members.

In terms of national politics, the city is part of Hyōgo 4th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

From the middle of the Edo period (1792), the area has been noted for the production of a striped cloth per a technique introduced from Nishijin in Kyoto, called "Banshu weaving".

[7] Heso-no-Kanchan (へそのかんちゃん) was made to promote a historical drama, Gunshi-Kanbe (軍師官兵衛), which had been broadcast in 2014.