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65-553: Kaizu is located in the extreme southwest corner of Gifu Prefecture. Levees are the most visible feature surrounding the city. To the west of the city is the border of Gifu and Mie prefectures, where the Yōrō Mountains run from north-to-south and the three major rivers of the Nōbi Plain (the Ibi , Nagara , and Kiso rivers) merge. The Tsuya , Ōgure , and Ōe rivers also flow through

130-589: A central government agency]") as in Hokkaidō). The central government wanted to have greater control over all local governments due to Japan's deteriorating position in World War II – for example, all mayors in the country became appointive as in the Meiji era – and over Tokyo in particular, due to the possibility of emergency in the metropolis. After the war, Japan was forced to decentralise Tokyo again, following

195-471: A geographic area of 5,774 square kilometers (2,229 sq mi). Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture to the northwest, Nara Prefecture to the west, Wakayama Prefecture to the southeast, and Aichi Prefecture to the east. Tsu is the capital and Yokkaichi is the largest city of Mie Prefecture, with other major cities including Suzuka , Matsusaka , Ise , and Kuwana . Mie Prefecture

260-410: A new dō was created to cover it. The Meiji government originally classified Hokkaidō as a "Settlement Envoyship" ( 開拓使 , kaitakushi ) , and later divided the island into three prefectures (Sapporo, Hakodate, and Nemuro). These were consolidated into a single Hokkaido Department ( 北海道庁 , Hokkaido-chō ) in 1886, at prefectural level but organized more along the lines of a territory. In 1947,

325-609: A prefecture, e.g. [aꜜitɕi] and [keꜜɴ] become [aitɕi̥ꜜkeɴ] ) . The Classical Chinese character from which this is derived carries a rural or provincial connotation, and an analogous character is used to refer to the counties of China , counties of Taiwan and districts of Vietnam . The different systems of parsing frame the ways in which Japanese prefectures are perceived: The prefectures are also often grouped into eight regions (地方, chihō ). Those regions are not formally specified, they do not have elected officials, nor are they corporate bodies. But

390-484: Is 64.8 percent forest , 11.5 percent agriculture , 6 percent residential area, 3.8 percent roads , and 3.6 percent rivers . 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

455-541: Is a combination of the four terms. Tokyo , capital city of Japan is referred to as to ( 都 , [toꜜ] ) , which is often translated as "metropolis". The Japanese government translates Tōkyō-to ( 東京都 , [toːkʲoꜜːto] ) as "Tokyo Metropolis" in almost all cases, and the government is officially called the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government". Following the capitulation of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, Tōkyō-fu (an urban prefecture like Kyoto and Osaka)

520-399: Is derived implies a core urban zone of national importance. Before World War II, different laws applied to fu and ken, but this distinction was abolished after the war, and the two types of prefecture are now functionally the same. 43 of the 47 prefectures are referred to as ken ( 県 , pronounced [keꜜɴ] when a separate word but [ꜜkeɴ] when part of the full name of

585-880: Is expanding into more advanced industries including the manufacture of semiconductors and liquid crystal displays. In Suzuka , the Honda Motor Company maintains a factory established in 1960 that built the Honda Civic , as well as other vehicles. The prefectural government was briefly moved to Yokkaichi Town in Mie District in 1872 (hence the name Mie), but the capital moved back to Anotsu, Anō District (present-day Tsu City) in 1873 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 absorbed Watarai Prefecture . After

650-619: Is home to Kisosansen Park . This is the location at which the Nagara , Ibi , and Kiso rivers meet. A panoramic view of the area can be viewed from an observation tower located in Kisosansen Park. Mie Prefecture Mie Prefecture ( Japanese : 三重県 , Hepburn : Mie-ken ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu . Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 (as of 1 June 2019 ) and has

715-751: Is located on the eastern coast of the Kii Peninsula , forming the western side of Ise Bay which features the mouths of the Kiso Three Rivers . Mie Prefecture is a popular tourism destination home to Nagashima Spa Land , Suzuka International Racing Course , and some of the oldest and holiest sites in Shinto , the traditional religion of Japan , including the Ise Grand Shrine and the Tsubaki Grand Shrine . Until

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780-506: Is occasionally used to differentiate the government from the island itself. The prefecture's government calls itself the "Hokkaidō Government" rather than the "Hokkaidō Prefectural Government". Osaka and Kyoto Prefectures are referred to as fu ( 府 , pronounced [ɸɯꜜ] when a separate word but [ꜜɸɯ] when part of the full name of a prefecture, e.g. [kʲoꜜːto] and [ɸɯꜜ] become [kʲoːtoꜜɸɯ] ) . The Classical Chinese character from which this

845-541: Is set tightly by national laws, and prefectures and municipalities are only autonomous within that framework. Historically, during the Edo period , the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō -ruled zones ( 奉行支配地 ) around the nine largest cities in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones ( 郡代支配地 ) elsewhere. When the Meiji government began to create the prefectural system in 1868, the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu ( 府 ) , while

910-417: Is still used today and was kept during the period of Japanese rule .) Hokkai-dō ( 北海道 , [hokkaꜜidoː] ) , the only remaining dō today, was not one of the original seven dō (it was known as Ezo in the pre-modern era). Its current name is believed to originate from Matsuura Takeshiro , an early Japanese explorer of the island. Since Hokkaidō did not fit into the existing dō classifications,

975-579: Is the mainstay of the local economy, with rice, wheat, soybeans, cucumbers, tomatoes and green pepper as the primary crops. The city is also home to mikan producers. Kaizu is the northernmost point in Japan that grows satsuma mikan extensively. Kaizu has ten public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Gifu Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school. Kaizu

1040-491: The Tokugawa shogunate . Many of the events of the 1754 Horeki River incident occurred in this area. During the post- Meiji restoration cadastral reforms, the area was organised into Ishizu District, Gifu. The town of Takasu was created on July 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. During the early Meiji period, the foreign advisor Johannis de Rijke worked on improving flood control and man of

1105-571: The Meiji Restoration , the area that is now Mie Prefecture was made up of Ise Province , Shima Province , Iga Province , and part of Kii Province . Evidence of human habitation in Mie dates back more than 10,000 years. During the Jōmon and Yayoi periods, agricultural communities began to form along the river and coastal areas of the region. Ise Shrine is said to have been established during

1170-614: The Shima Peninsula , has a warmer Pacific marine climate, with Owase Region having one of the heaviest rainfall figures for all of Japan. As of 31 March 2019, 36% of the total area of the prefecture comprised designated Natural Parks , namely: Since 2006, Mie consists of 29 municipalities : 14 cities and 15 towns . When the modern municipalities were introduced in 1889, Mie initially consisted of 336 municipalities: 1 (by definition: district-level) city and 21 districts with 18 towns and 317 villages . With

1235-464: The Yamagata - Mosse laws on local government and the simultaneous Great Meiji merger was performed in 1889, the 15 -ku became wards of Tokyo City , initially Tokyo's only independent city (-shi) , the six rural districts of Tokyo were consolidated in 85 towns and villages. In 1893, the three Tama districts and their 91 towns and villages became part of Tokyo. As Tokyo city's suburbs grew rapidly in

1300-625: The fiefdoms they encountered there. Its original sense in Portuguese, however, was closer to " municipality " than " province ". Today, in turn, Japan uses its word ken ( 県 ), meaning "prefecture", to identify Portuguese districts while in Brazil the word "Prefeitura" is used to refer to a city hall . Those fiefs were headed by a local warlord or family. Though the fiefs have long since been dismantled, merged, and reorganized multiple times, and been granted legislative governance and oversight,

1365-511: The " Union of Kansai governments " (Kansai kōiki-rengō) which has been established by several prefectural governments in the Kansai region. There are some differences in terminology between Tokyo and other prefectures: police and fire departments are called chō ( 庁 ) instead of honbu ( 本部 ) , for instance. But the only functional difference between Tōkyō-to and other prefectures is that Tokyo administers wards as well as cities. Today, since

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1430-547: The 1920s, each prefecture (then only 3 -fu and 42 -ken ; Hokkaidō and Okinawa-ken were subject to different laws until the 20th century) was subdivided into cities ( 市 , shi ) and districts ( 郡 , gun ) and each district into towns ( 町 , chō/machi ) and villages ( 村 , son/mura ) . Hokkaidō has 14 subprefectures that act as General Subprefectural Bureaus ( 総合振興局 , sōgō-shinkō-kyoku, "Comprehensive Promotion Bureau" ) and Subprefectural Bureaus ( 振興局 , shinkō-kyoku, "Promotion Bureau" ) of

1495-408: The 35 wards were reorganised into the 23 special wards , because many of its citizens had either died during the war, left the city, or been drafted and did not return. In the occupation reforms, special wards, each with their own elected assemblies ( kugikai ) and mayors ( kuchō ), were intended to be equal to other municipalities even if some restrictions still applied. (For example, there was during

1560-569: 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 and Ise Katagami flourished. With 65% of

1625-788: The Metropolitan government. For example, the Tokyo Fire Department which was only responsible for the 23 special wards until 1960 has until today taken over the municipal fire departments in almost all of Tokyo. A joint governmental structure for the whole Tokyo metropolitan area (and not only the western suburbs of the special wards which are part of the Tokyo prefecture/Metropolis") as advocated by some politicians such as former Kanagawa governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa has not been established (see also Dōshūsei ). Existing cross-prefectural fora of cooperation between local governments in

1690-566: The Mie assembly, the LDP is strongest party; but it is distributed across several parliamentary groups, and the strongest group is Shisei Mie (新政みえ; "Renewal Mie") around members of several local parties of former Democrats . In the National Diet , Mie is represented by four directly elected members of the House of Representatives and two (one per class) in the House of Councillors . After

1755-455: 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 the Meiji Restoration , the former provinces of Ise, Shima and Iga as well as a portion of eastern Kii , were organized and reorganized repeatedly. In 1871, the area from the Kiso Three Rivers in the north to present-day Tsu became Anōtsu Prefecture, and

1820-455: The Tokyo metropolitan area are the Kantō regional governors' association (Kantō chihō chijikai) and the " Shutoken summit" (formally "conference of chief executives of nine prefectures and cities", 9 to-ken-shi shunō kaigi ). But, these are not themselves local public entities under the local autonomy law and national or local government functions cannot be directly transferred to them, unlike

1885-577: The Yayoi period, and in the 7th century the Saikū Imperial Residence was built in what is now Meiwa Town to serve as both a residence and administrative centre for the Saiō , an Imperial Princess who served as High Priestess of Ise Shrine. During the Edo period , the area now known as Mie Prefecture consisted of several feudal domains, each ruled by an appointed lord. Transport networks, including

1950-493: 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

2015-402: The city of Shima hosted the 42nd G7 summit , the third summit without the presence of Russia . Mie Prefecture forms the eastern part of the Kii Peninsula , and borders on Aichi , Gifu , Shiga , Kyoto , Nara , and Wakayama . It is considered part of the Kansai and Tōkai regions due to its geographical proximity to Aichi Prefecture and its cultural influence from Kansai , such as

Kaizu - Misplaced Pages Continue

2080-597: The city. The city has a climate characterized by characterized by hot and humid summers, and mild winters ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ). The average annual temperature in Kaizu is 15.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1773 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 27.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.3 °C. Per Japanese census data,

2145-522: The country, were further subdivided into urban units/towns/neighbourhoods (-chō/-machi) and rural units/villages (-mura/-son) . The yet unincorporated communities on the Izu (previously part of Shizuoka ) and Ogasawara (previously directly Home Ministry-administrated) island groups became also part of Tokyo in the 19th century. When the modern municipalities – [district-independent] cities and [rural] districts containing towns and villages – were introduced under

2210-490: The decades. But it was not until the year 2000 that the special wards were fully recognised as municipal-level entities. Independently from these steps, as Tokyo's urban growth again took up pace during the postwar economic miracle and most of the main island part of Tokyo "Metropolis" became increasingly core part of the Tokyo metropolitan area , many of the other municipalities in Tokyo have transferred some of their authority to

2275-400: The department was dissolved, and Hokkaidō became a full-fledged prefecture. The -ken suffix was never added to its name, so the -dō suffix came to be understood to mean "prefecture". When Hokkaidō was incorporated, transportation on the island was still underdeveloped, so the prefecture was split into several "subprefectures" ( 支庁 , shichō ) that could fulfill administrative duties of

2340-456: The dikes in this area. The town of Kaizu was established on January 15, 1954 by the merger of Takasu with four neighbouring villages. The modern city of Kaizu was established on March 28, 2005, from the merger of the former town of Kaizu, absorbing the towns of Hirata and Nannō (all from Kaizu District ). Kaizu has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 15 members. Agriculture

2405-583: The early 20th century, many towns and villages in Tokyo were merged or promoted over the years. In 1932, five complete districts with their 82 towns and villages were merged into Tokyo City and organised in 20 new wards. Also, by 1940, there were two more cities in Tokyo: Hachiōji City and Tachikawa City . In 1943, Tokyo City was abolished, Tōkyō-fu became Tōkyō-to , and Tokyo-shi's 35 wards remained Tokyo-to's 35 wards, but submunicipal authorities of Tokyo-shi's wards which previously fell directly under

2470-476: The end of the Kamakura period , the first circle levee was completed. Originally, levees were only on the upstream portion of the city, leaving the downstream side vulnerable to floods. Once the full circle levee was completed, numerous other circle levees were built in the surrounding area. During the Edo period , most of the area was divided between Takasu Domain and tenryō territory under direct control of

2535-511: The fact that Kansai dialect is spoken in Mie. Traditionally, though, the Iga region of Mie is considered to have always been a part of Kansai . Mie Prefecture measures 170 km (106 mi) from north to south, and 80 km (50 mi) from east to west, and includes five distinct geographical areas: Mie has a coastline that stretches 1,094.9 km (680.3 mi) and, as of 2000, Mie's 5,776.44 km (2,230.30 sq mi) landmass

2600-405: The formal extent of the local autonomy law suggests, because of national funding and policies. Most of municipalities depend heavily on central government funding – a dependency recently further exacerbated in many regions by the declining population which hits rural areas harder and earlier (cities can offset it partly through migration from the countryside). In many policy areas, the basic framework

2665-495: The general terms of democratisation outlined in the Potsdam Declaration . Many of Tokyo's special governmental characteristics disappeared during this time, and the wards took on an increasingly municipal status in the decades following the surrender. Administratively, today's special wards are almost indistinguishable from other municipalities. The postwar reforms also changed the map of Tokyo significantly: In 1947,

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2730-532: The government consolidate the current prefectures into about 10 regional states (so-called dōshūsei ). The plan called for each region to have greater autonomy than existing prefectures. This process would reduce the number of subprefecture administrative regions and cut administrative costs. The Japanese government also considered a plan to merge several groups of prefectures, creating a subnational administrative division system consisting of between nine and 13 states, and giving these states more local autonomy than

2795-528: The governor of Mie is directly elected since 1947. The prefectural assembly has 51 members. Both prefectural elections in Mie are currently held as part of unified local elections. In the last round in 2019, governor Eikei Suzuki easily won a third term with broad support from LDP , Shinsei Mie (see below) and Kōmeitō , against only one, JCP -supported challenger; Suzuki was originally elected narrowly in 2011 as centre-right candidate against centre-left supported Naohisa Matsuda, former mayor of Tsu City. In

2860-509: The large districts (97 small districts) covered the former city area of Edo. When the ancient ritsuryō districts were reactivated as administrative units in 1878, Tokyo was subdivided into 15 [urban] districts (- ku ) and initially six [rural] districts ( - gun ; nine after the Tama transfer from Kanagawa in 1893, eight after the merger of East Tama and South Toshima into Toyotama in 1896). Both urban and rural districts, like everywhere in

2925-710: The modern reactivation of districts in 1878/79, Mie consisted of 21 districts (merged down to 15 in the 1890s). The first prefectural assembly was elected in March 1879 and convened in April. In the introduction of modern cities, towns and villages in 1889, Anotsu became district-independent as Tsu City and the districts were subdivided into 18 towns and 317 villages (see the List of mergers in Mie Prefecture for changes since then). As in all prefectures except Okinawa,

2990-564: The municipality, with the municipality now abolished, fell directly under prefectural or now "Metropolitan" authority. All other cities, towns and villages in Tokyo-fu stayed cities, towns and villages in Tokyo-to. The reorganisation's aim was to consolidate the administration of the area around the capital by eliminating the extra level of authority in Tokyo. Also, the governor was no longer called chiji , but chōkan (~"head/chief [usually: of

3055-566: The national elections of 2016, 2017 and 2019, Mie's directly elected delegation was evenly split between Liberal Democrats (HR district #1: Norihisa Tamura , #4: Noriyo Mitsuya , HC 2019–25 class: Yūmi Yoshikawa ) and ex-Democrats (HR #2: Masaharu Nakagawa , #3: Katsuya Okada , HC 2016–22 class: Hirokazu Shiba ) in both houses of the Diet. Prefectures of Japan Japan is divided into 47 prefectures ( 都道府県 , todōfuken , [todoːɸɯ̥ꜜkeɴ] ), which rank immediately below

3120-513: The national government and form the country's first level of jurisdiction and administrative division . They include 43 prefectures proper ( 県 , ken ), two urban prefectures ( 府 , fu : Osaka and Kyoto ), one regional prefecture ( 道 , dō : Hokkaidō ) and one metropolis ( 都 , to : Tokyo ). In 1868, the Meiji Fuhanken sanchisei administration created the first prefectures (urban fu and rural ken ) to replace

3185-407: The occupation a dedicated municipal police agency for the 23 special wards/former Tokyo City , yet the special wards public safety commission was not named by the special ward governments, but by the government of the whole "Metropolis". In 1954, independent municipal police forces were abolished generally in the whole country, and the prefectural/"Metropolitan" police of Tokyo is again responsible for

3250-589: The organization of the prefectural police force, the supervision of schools and the maintenance of prefectural schools (mainly high schools), prefectural hospitals, prefectural roads , the supervision of prefectural waterways and regional urban planning. Their responsibilities include tasks delegated to them by the national government such as maintaining most ordinary national roads (except in designated major cities), and prefectures coordinate and support their municipalities in their functions. De facto, prefectures as well as municipalities have often been less autonomous than

3315-451: The population of Kaizu peaked around the year 2000 and has declined steadily since. The area around Kaizu was part of traditional Mino Province . A midden from Jōmon period was found in Kaizu, which includes sea shells, tools, and human remains. These artifacts indicate that the area was settled as early as 2,500 years ago. Around these period, Kaizu was much closer to the ocean and many basket clam shells can be found. In 1319, towards

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3380-450: The practice of ordering prefectures based on their geographic region is traditional. This ordering is mirrored in Japan's International Organization for Standardization (ISO) coding. From north to south (numbering in ISO 3166-2:JP order), the prefectures of Japan and their commonly associated regions are: Here are some territories that were lost after World War II. This does not include all

3445-406: The prefectural government and keep tight control over the developing island. These subprefectures still exist today, although they have much less power than they possessed before and during World War II. They now exist primarily to handle paperwork and other bureaucratic functions. "Hokkaidō Prefecture" is, technically speaking, a redundant term because dō itself indicates a prefecture, although it

3510-513: 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 produces tea , beef , cultured pearls and fruit, mainly mandarin oranges . Food production companies include Azuma Foods . 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

3575-569: The prefecture. Some other prefectures also have branch offices that carry out prefectural administrative functions outside the capital. Tokyo , the capital of Japan , is a merged city-prefecture; a metropolis, it has features of both cities and prefectures. Each prefecture has its own mon for identification, the equivalent of a coat of arms in the West. The West's use of "prefecture" to label these Japanese regions stems from 16th-century Portuguese explorers and traders use of "prefeitura" to describe

3640-506: The prefectures currently enjoy. As of August 2012, this plan was abandoned. Japan is a unitary state . The central government delegates many functions (such as education and the police force ) to the prefectures and municipalities , but retains the overall right to control them. Although local government expenditure accounts for 70 percent of overall government expenditure , the central government controls local budgets, tax rates , and borrowing. Prefectural government functions include

3705-623: The rough translation stuck. The Meiji government established the current system in July 1871 with the abolition of the han system and establishment of the prefecture system ( 廃藩置県 , haihan-chiken ) . Although there were initially over 300 prefectures, many of them being former han territories, this number was reduced to 72 in the latter part of 1871, and 47 in 1888. The Local Autonomy Law of 1947 gave more political power to prefectures, and installed prefectural governors and parliaments. In 2003, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed that

3770-468: The special wards have almost the same degree of independence as Japanese cities, the difference in administration between Tokyo and other prefectures is fairly minor. In Osaka, several prominent politicians led by Tōru Hashimoto , then mayor of Osaka City and former governor of Osaka Prefecture , proposed an Osaka Metropolis plan , under which Osaka City, and possibly other neighboring cities, would be replaced by special wards similar to Tokyo's. The plan

3835-627: The township-ruled zones and the rest of the bugyo-ruled zones became ken ( 県 ) . Later, in 1871, the government designated Tokyo , Osaka , and Kyoto as fu , and relegated the other fu to the status of ken. During World War II , in 1943, Tokyo became a to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture. Despite the differences in terminology, there is little functional difference between the four types of local governments. The subnational governments are sometimes collectively referred to as todōfuken ( 都道府県 , [todoːɸɯ̥ꜜkeɴ] ) in Japanese, which

3900-401: The turn of the century. In many instances, these are contiguous with the ancient ritsuryō provinces of Japan . Each prefecture's chief executive is a directly elected governor ( 知事 , chiji ) . Ordinances and budgets are enacted by a unicameral assembly ( 議会 , gikai ) whose members are elected for four-year terms. Under a set of 1888–1890 laws on local government until

3965-489: The urban and rural administrators ( bugyō , daikan , etc.) in the parts of the country previously controlled directly by the shogunate and a few territories of rebels/shogunate loyalists who had not submitted to the new government such as Aizu / Wakamatsu . In 1871, all remaining feudal domains ( han ) were also transformed into prefectures, so that prefectures subdivided the whole country. In several waves of territorial consolidation, today's 47 prefectures were formed by

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4030-438: The whole prefecture/"Metropolis" and like all prefectural police forces controlled by the prefectural/"Metropolitan" public safety commission whose members are appointed by the prefectural/"Metropolitan" governor and assembly.) But, as part of the "reverse course" of the 1950s some of these new rights were removed, the most obvious measure being the denial of directly elected mayors. Some of these restrictions were removed again over

4095-507: Was narrowly defeated in a 2015 referendum , and again in 2020 . Hokkaidō is referred to as a dō ( 道 , [doꜜː] ) or circuit . This term was originally used to refer to Japanese regions consisting of several provinces (e.g. the Tōkaidō east-coast region, and Saikaido west-coast region). This was also a historical usage of the character in China. (In Korea, this historical usage

4160-539: Was set up and encompassed the former city area of Edo under the Fuhanken sanchisei . After the abolition of the han system in the first wave of prefectural mergers in 1871/72, several surrounding areas (parts of Urawa , Kosuge , Shinagawa and Hikone prefectures ) were merged into Tokyo, and under the system of (numbered) "large districts and small districts" (daiku-shōku) , it was subdivided into eleven large districts further subdivided into 103 small districts, six of

4225-472: Was taken from a comment about the region made by Yamato Takeru on his way back from conquering the eastern regions. In 1959, many people died as parts of Mie were devastated by the Ise-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,

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