 With the Meiji period creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, the towns of Nagaoka and Nagaoka-honmachi were established.The two towns were merged on November 1, 1901 with the towns of Senju, Kusouzu, Ara, and village of Ouchi to form the modern town of Nagaoka, which was then raised to city status on April 1, 1906.Nagaoka has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 34 members.