Loading AI tools
There are a small number of municipalities in Japan whose names are written in hiragana or katakana, together known as kana, rather than kanji as is traditional for Japanese place names.[1] Many city names written in kana have kanji equivalents that are either phonetic manyōgana, or whose kanji are outside of the jōyō kanji.[citation needed] Others, such as Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, are taken from localities or landmarks whose names continue to be written in kanji. Another cause is the merger of multiple cities, one of which had the original kanji — in such cases, the hiragana place name is used to create a new identity for the merged city, distinct from the constituent city with the same kanji name.
 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. (November 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
| Romanized | Katakana + Kanji | Prefecture | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niseko | ニセコ町 | Hokkaidō | from Ainu |
| Minamiarupusu | 南アルプス市 | Yamanashi | from "Japanese Alps" |
 |
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
