Kitanagoya City
Don't call us Dobu.

A residential neighbourhood in Kitanagoya City, which is 10km north of Nagoya, has successfully applied to change the reading of the area’s name to something less embarrassing.

徳重土部

While the kanji characters remain the same, the reading of the last two characters has been changed from ‘dobu’ to ‘tsuchibe’. The pronunciation of ‘dobu’ can mean drain or ditch, which does not exactly have positive connotations. Schoolchildren often made fun of the name, and local residents believed it to have a negative effect on property values.

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