Evidence of human habitation in Mie dates back more than 10,000 years. During theJōmon andYayoi periods, agricultural communities began to form along the river and coastal areas of the region.Ise Shrine is said to have been established during the Yayoi period, and in the 7th century theSaikū Imperial Residence was built in what is nowMeiwa Town to serve as both a residence and administrative centre for theSaiō, an Imperial Princess who served as High Priestess of Ise Shrine.
During theEdo period, the area now known as Mie Prefecture consisted of severalfeudal domains, each ruled by an appointed lord. Transport networks, including the Tokaido and Ise Roads, were built. Port towns such as Ohminato,Kuwana and Anōtsu, posting stations and castle towns flourished. Pilgrimages to Ise Shrine also became very popular.
After theMeiji Restoration, the former provinces of Ise, Shima and Iga as well as a portion of easternKii, were organized and reorganized repeatedly. In 1871, the area from theKiso Three Rivers in the north to present-dayTsu became Anōtsu Prefecture, and the area south of that became Watarai Prefecture. In 1872, the Anōtsu prefectural seat moved from Tsu toYokkaichi, and the prefecture itself was renamed Mie. For a variety of reasons, including the strong likelihood that Mie would eventually merge with Watarai, the prefectural seat returned to Tsu the following year, and Mie Prefecture took its present-day form in 1876, when it merged with its southern neighbor.
The name Mie supposedly was taken from a comment about the region made byYamato Takeru on his way back from conquering the eastern regions.
In 1959, many people died as parts of Mie were devastated by theIse-wan Typhoon, the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history. Crops were destroyed, sea walls ruined, roads and railways damaged and a substantial number of people were injured or left homeless.
In May 2016, the city ofShima hosted the42nd G7 summit, the third summit without the presence ofRussia.
Physical map of Mie prefectureRegional division of Mie as used by theJapan Meteorological Agency: The primary division is between North/Central and South, the former being further subdivided into North, Central and Iga, the latter into Ise-Shima and KiSei/East Kishū;Ise/Sei-shū,Shima/Shi-shū,Iga/I-shū andKii/Ki-shū are the four Ritsuryō provinces that are partly or entirely part of modern Mie.
Mie has a coastline that stretches 1,094.9 km (680.3 mi) and, as of 2000, Mie's 5,776.44 km2 (2,230.30 sq mi) landmass is 64.8 percentforest, 11.5 percentagriculture, 6 percent residential area, 3.8 percentroads, and 3.6 percentrivers. The remaining 10.3 percent are not classified.
The Ise Plain has a relatively moderate climate, averaging 14 to 15 °C (57 to 59 °F) for the year. The Iga Basin has more daily temperature variance and averages temperatures 1 to 2 degrees cooler than the Ise Plain. Southern Mie, south of theShima Peninsula, has a warmerPacific marine climate, withOwase Region having one of the heaviest rainfall figures for all of Japan.[6]
As of 31 March 2019,[update] 36% of the total area of the prefecture comprised designatedNatural Parks,[7] namely:
When the modern municipalities were introduced in 1889, Mie initially consisted of 336 municipalities: 1(by definition: district-level) city and 21districts with 18towns and 317villages. With the Great Shōwa mergers of the 1950s, the number of municipalities in Mie had dropped to 88 by 1956. The Great Heisei mergers of the 2000s reduced the total from 69 to 29 between 2000 and 2006.
Mie Prefecture has traditionally been a link between east and west Japan, thanks largely to the Tokaido and Ise Pilgrimage Roads. Traditional handicrafts such as Iga Braid, Yokkaichi Banko Pottery, Suzuka Ink, Iga Pottery andIse Katagami flourished. With 65% of the prefecture consisting of forests and with over 1,000 km (600 mi) of coastline, Mie has a long been associated with forestry and seafood industries. Mie also producestea,beef,cultured pearls and fruit, mainlymandarin oranges. Food production companies includeAzuma Foods.[8][9]
Northern Mie is home to a number of manufacturing industries, mainly transport machinery manufacturing (vehicles and ships) and heavy chemical industries such as oil refineries. As well as this, Mie Prefecture is expanding into more advanced industries including the manufacture of semiconductors and liquid crystal displays. InSuzuka, theHonda Motor Company maintains a factory established in 1960 that built theHonda Civic, as well as other vehicles.
Distribution of regionallicense plates in Mie: Much of the prefecture still uses 三重 (Mie), and there is only one prefecturewide MLIT vehicle registration centre for all of Mie, in Tsu City; but with the introduction of regional plates without a separate licensing office since the 2000s, there are now three additional regional identifieres: 四日市 (Yokkaichi) for Yokkaichi City alone, 鈴鹿 (Suzuka) in Suzuka City and Kameyama City, and 伊勢志摩 (Ise-Shima) used for seven municipalities on the Shima peninsula.
Saikū - Site ofHeian Imperial residence, with modern museum and reconstructed Heian building.
A largeSonic the Hedgehog statue in the town ofIga can be found near Kanonji temple which has been the topic of discussion amongst gaming publications.[12]
The Meiji-era, former (1879–1964) building of the Mie prefectural government has been reconstructed in the"Meiji village" museum in Aichi.
Theprefectural government was briefly moved toYokkaichi Town inMie District in 1872 (hence the name Mie), but the capital moved back to Anotsu,Anō District (present-day Tsu City) in 1873[14] and has remained there since. Ignoring small changes through cross-prefectural municipal mergers, neighbourhood transfers and coastline variations, Mie reached its present borders in 1876 when it absorbedWatarai Prefecture. After the modern reactivation ofdistricts in 1878/79, Mie consisted of 21 districts (merged down to 15 in the 1890s).[15] The first prefectural assembly was elected in March 1879 and convened in April.[16] In the introduction of moderncities, towns and villages in 1889, Anotsu became district-independent as TsuCity and the districts were subdivided into 18towns and 317villages (see theList of mergers in Mie Prefecture for changes since then).
As in all prefectures except Okinawa, the governor of Mie is directly elected since 1947. Theprefectural assembly has 51 members. Both prefectural elections in Mie are currently held as part of unified local elections. In the last round in 2019, governorEikei Suzuki easily won a third term with broad support fromLDP,Shinsei Mie (see below) andKōmeitō, against only one,JCP-supported challenger;[17] Suzuki was originallyelected narrowly in 2011 as centre-right candidate against centre-left supported Naohisa Matsuda, former mayor of Tsu City. In the Mie assembly, the LDP is strongest party;[18] but it is distributed across several parliamentary groups, and the strongest group isShisei Mie (新政みえ; "Renewal Mie") around members of several local parties of formerDemocrats.[19]
^NHKSenkyoWeb:2019 unified election results/prefectural assemblies/Mie [by nomination in that election, not by party membership, let alone parliamentary group membership, or affiliations at any previous or later point in time] (Japanese), retrieved June 24, 2020.
