Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Mie Prefecture is a 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 and Kyoto Prefectur ...

> Watarai District is a rural

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

located in

. As of September 1, 2012, the district has an estimated population of 47,309 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

of 72.5 persons/km². The total area is 652.43 km².

Towns and villages

* * * *

History

Watarai District was one of the traditional counties of former Ise Province, with the exception of portions of Minamiise, which were part of

Shima Province was a province of Japan which consisted of a peninsula in the southeastern part of modern Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shima''" in . Its abbreviated name was . Shima bordered on Ise Province to the west, and on Ise Ba ...

until the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

. Modern Watarai District was established within Mie Prefecture on April 1, 1889 during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

establishment of municipalities, and was initially organized into four towns and 31 villages. Most of modern

Ise Ise may refer to: Places *Ise, Mie, a city in Japan ** Ise Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine located in Ise, Mie * Ise Ekiti, a city in Nigeria * Ise, Norway, a village in Norway * Ise Province, an ancient province of Japan * River Ise, a tributary of ...

and part of Shima cities were formerly part of Watarai District. Through consolidations and mergers, this was reduced to eight towns and two villages by the start of 2005. On February 14, 2005, the towns of Kisei and Ōmiya and the village of Ōuchiyama merged to form the new town of Taiki. On October 1, 2005. the towns of Nansei and Nantō merged to form the new town of Minamiise. This was followed on November 1 of the same year, when the towns of Futami and Obata, and village of Misono merged with city of

, leaving the district with its present four towns. {{Authority control Districts in Mie Prefecture