It reads あいなんちょう — Ainan Cho. This is one of the harder names in the country: small municipalities are exactly where Japan's nandoku chimei (難読地名, "hard-to-read place names") live.
This place is one of 1,651 in Chimei, our Japan city game. Read the kanji, then pin it on the map.
Play Chimei →Every dot is one of Japan's 1,651 municipalities, plotted at its real coordinates. Ainan is marked in red.
Measured as real great-circle distance from Ainan.
These are affiliate links. Nihoner may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
愛南町 is read あいなんちょう (Ainan Cho). It is a town in Ehime Prefecture.
町 means "town" and is read chō / machi. A town. 町 is read either chō or machi — which one is local convention, and it varies by region. This is one of the classic traps in Japanese place names.
Ainan has a population of 19,131 across 239 km², making it the 893rd largest of Japan's 1,651 municipalities and the 13th largest of the 20 in Ehime.
The closest municipalities to Ainan are Sukumo Shi (13 km), Otsuki Cho (17 km), Mihara Mura (24 km).