260px, Ōsugidani Ravine is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in

Mie Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture an ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the town had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 8,847 in 4,125 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 24 persons per km². The total area of the town was .

Geography

Ōdai is located in southeastern

Kii Peninsula The is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan and is located within the Kansai region. It is named after the ancient Kii Province. The peninsula has long been a sacred place in Buddhism, Shinto, and Shugendo, and many people wou ...

in central Mie Prefecture. An inland municipality, Ōdai extends almost the width of Mie Prefecture from east to west, but is narrow north to south.

Climate

Ōdai has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ōdai is 14.2 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2,683 mm with September the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.7 °C.

Demographics

The population of Ōdai has decreased steadily over the past 60 years and is now less than it was a century ago.Ōdai population statistics
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History

The area of present-day Ōdai was part of the ancient

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears ...

, but was mostly part of

Kii Domain Kii or KII can refer to: History * Gosanke#Kii House, Kii House, a branch family of the Tokugawa clan that ruled Japan during the Edo period * Yūshi Naishinnō-ke no Kii, or Lady Kii of Princess Yūshi's Household, a poet and noblewoman in the Hei ...

under the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. The village of Misedani in Taki District, Mie Prefecture, was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was raised to town status in 1953. The town of Ōdai was established on September 30, 1956 by the merger Misedani with the village of Kawazoe. On January 1, 2006, the last remaining village in Mie Prefecture, Miyagawa Village, merged with Ōdai.

Government

Ōdai has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city council of 11 members. Ōdai contributes two members to the Mie Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Mie 4th district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Ōdai serves as a commercial center for the surrounding region.

Education

Ōdai has four public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the town government. The town has one public high school operated by the Mie Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

JR Tōkai –

Kisei Main Line The is a railway line that parallels the coastline of the Kii Peninsula in Japan between Mie Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture. The name takes the ''kanji'' characters from the names of the old provinces of and . The line is operated by Cen ...

* - - -

Highway

* 24px, link=, alt=E42 Kisei Expressway * *

Local attractions

* Mount Ōdaigahara

References

External links

Ōdai official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odai, Mie Towns in Mie Prefecture