Tsu is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 274,879 in 127,273 households and a population density of 390 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Although the second largest city in the prefecture in terms of population, its designation as the prefectural capital and its holding of a large concentration of national government offices and educational facilities make the city the administrative and educational center of Mie Prefecture.
Tsu is located in east-central Kii Peninsula, in central Mie Prefecture. It is the largest city in Mie Prefecture in terms of area and stretches the width of Mie Prefecture, and is bordered by Ise Bay on the Pacific Ocean to the east, and Nara Prefecture to the west. Parts of the city are within the limits of the Murō-Akame-Aoyama Quasi-National Park.
The city of Suzuka, to the north
The city of Kameyama, to the north
The city of Matsusaka, to the south
The city of Iga, to the west
The city of Nabari to the west
The village of Soni, Nara to the west
The village of Mitsue, Nara to the west
Tsu has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Tsu is 15.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1931 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.0 °C. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, but is heaviest from May to September.
Per Japanese census data, the population of Tsu has been relatively stable over the past 40 years.
Tsu originally developed as a port town known as Anotsu in the Nara and Heian periods.
The port was destroyed by a tsunami in the 1498 Meiō Nankaidō earthquake.
File:Kitabatake Akiyoshi.jpg|[[Kitabatake Akiyoshi]]
File:北畠氏館跡庭園.jpg|Kitabatake Family Residence Gardens([[Kitabatake Shrine]])
The town was rebuilt as a castle town and a post station by the Tōdō clan, daimyō of Tsu Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate.