 Mie Prefecture (三重県, Mie-ken) - A
prefecture of Japan which is part of the Kinki region on
Honshū island. The capital is the city of Tsu.
Mie Prefecture forms the eastern part of the Kii Peninsula,
and is bordered by Aichi, Gifu, Shiga, Kyoto, Nara, and
Wakayama. It is considered part of the Kinki region, but it
is close to Nagoya and has a number of suburbs of Nagoya.
Most of the prefecture is mountainous, with a populous
coastal plain along Ise Bay in the northeast, and high
mountains along the southern coast, the Shima Peninsula, and
the western border with the rest of Kinki, including a high
plateau around Iga near Nara.
As of 2000 Mie Prefecture's 5,776.44 km² landmass is divided
into 64.8% forest, 11.5% agriculture, 6% residential area,
3.8% roads, and 3.6% rivers. The remaining 10.3% are not
classified.
 Present-day Mie Prefecture covers an area that formerly
comprised the provinces Ise, Shima, and Iga as well as a
portion of eastern Kii. This area was organized and
reorganized repeatedly at the time of the Meiji Restoration,
but in 1871 the area from the Kisosansen rivers in the north
to present-day Tsu became Anōtsu Prefecture, and the area
south of that became Watarai Prefecture. In 1872, the Anōtsu
prefectural seat moved from Tsu to Yokkaichi, 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 by Yamato Takeru on his way back from conquering
the eastern regions.
Mie's manufacturing industry specializes in transport
machinery, such as ships and cars, and chemicals,
particularly oil refining. Agricultural products include
tea, beef, and pearls.
Fourteen cities are located in Mie Prefecture:
Iga
Inabe
Ise
Kameyama
Kumano
Kuwana
Matsusaka
Nabari
Owase
Shima
Suzuka
Toba
Tsu (capital)
Yokkaichi
Information source: “Mie Prefecture.” wikipedia.org. Article
date: 26 Feb. 2008. Retrieved: Wikipedia. 4 Mar. 2008 <Mie Prefecture>. |
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