Tricky Japanese Place Names

The car navigation says 十六島 ahead and you can't read it. Look it up before the turn: it is Uppurui (うっぷるい).

Tricky Japanese Place Names is an offline dictionary of 1,474 Japanese place names whose kanji give little hint of how they are read, from all 47 prefectures. Each entry shows the reading as given in Japan Post's postcode data, where the place is, and its postal code.

• Search by kanji, hiragana, katakana or romaji, with or without 町; one typo is forgiven
• Same kanji, different reading: related entries side by side (寒水 is ひやみず in Aomori and そうず in Fukuoka)
• Today's place name on the home screen
• Save entries and find recent ones again
• Share a clean card of any entry
• Daily 5: a short reading quiz each day
• Browse by prefecture, from Hokkaido down to Okinawa

FREE AND PRO
Search is free, with today's place name, the first 20% of the list, 3 detail views a day, 1 share card a day, one Daily 5 set a day and 1 saved entry. Pro adds every entry, reading notes for all 1,474 names, unlimited and hi-res cards, quizzes any time with stats and unlimited saves. One-time purchase.

SOURCES
Readings, places and postal codes come from Japan Post's postcode data (September 2026 release). They are the readings recorded in that data, not official readings. English municipality names are based on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications local government code list (出典：総務省ホームページ（https://www.soumu.go.jp/denshijiti/code.html）を加工して作成). Compiled and edited by Pentarab. Not affiliated with Japan Post or any government agency.

Works offline. No account needed.