A reader includes: a transmission device that repeatedly transmits, at a cycle corresponding to the code length of a prescribed code string, an electromagnetic wave that is phase-adjusted with the prescribed code string; a reception device that receives the reflected wave from the object to be identified, cyclically overlaps a reception signal relating to the reflected wave at the cycle of the code length, and calculates the correlation value of the overlapped result and the prescribed code string; and a control device that controls the transmission device and varies the transmission frequency of the electromagnetic wave in a steplike manner to perform a frequency sweep within a prescribed frequency band, controls the reception device, causing the reception device to calculate the correlation value for each transmission frequency, and specifies the attributes of the object to be identified on the basis of the correlation value for each transmission frequency.