Ainan, Ehime

Ainan (愛南町; -cho) is a large town made up of smaller village suburbs in southern Ehime Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku in Japan.

On October 1, 2004 all the towns of Minamiuwa (Johen, Misho, Nishiumi, Uchiumi, and Ipponmatsu,) merged together to form a larger town, Ainan. This action, referred to in Japanese as gappei, has been happening more and more in Japan as these small villages annex into larger towns or cities, primarily for tax reasons.

Each of the towns retained their name as a district of the larger Ainan. This larger municipality, however, is now eligible to receive more government funding, and so this decision is very appealing to many small village clusters like the ones in Minamiuwa.

External link

• Official website in Japanese