A study conducted by Tohoku University in Japan predicts that by the year 2500, all Japanese will bear the surname “Sato”, which is currently the most common surname in the Asian country, the EFE agency reported on Monday, as quoted by Agerpres.

“Sato” is the most common surname among Japanese people, with 1.5% of Japan’s population carrying it in 2023, according to estimates from a study by Professor Hiroshi Yoshida of the Center for Social and Economic Research on Aging in the US. said university.

He estimates that the number of people with the Sato surname has increased by a factor of 1.0083 in recent years, and makes a prediction about the evolution of this number, taking into account the demographic trends of rapid aging and declining birth rates, which lead to a net loss of population.

His research also takes into account Japanese law, which stipulates that when a husband and wife marry, they must take the same surname, either his or hers. In Japan, only one surname and one first name are used.

Japan debates whether women should keep their surnames

Based on these factors, Yoshida predicts that in 2446, half of Japan’s population will have the surname “Sato”, and by 2531, all Japanese will have the same surname. The study was released amid an ongoing debate in Japan over the aforementioned civil norms regarding surnames.

Many voices, including members of the ruling party, are calling for husbands and wives to be able to keep their surnames after marriage or even have two surnames, as is the case in countries such as Spain.

The authors of the study tried to “illustrate with numbers the problem of selective division of surnames in marriages,” Yoshida said.

“If all the surnames are ‘Sato san’ (‘Mr. or Mrs. Sato’), there will be no choice but to use only the first name for identification. This would not be an ideal scenario,” the teacher told the local press.