People living in Japan will all have the same family name in just 500 years time unless something changes.
Every single Japanese person will be known as ‘Sato-san’ by the year 2531 unless couples are allowed to use separate surnames, a new study has claimed.
The research is hoping to update a civil code that dates back to the late 1800s.
The paper, led by Hiroshi Yoshida, projected if couples in Japan continue to share a single surname when they marry, every single person in the country, who was born there and/or adopts the family name too, will have the same surname.
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Yoshida, a professor of economy at Tohoku University says his projects stemmed from several assumptions, but said the idea was to use numbers to explain how the civil code affects society.
“If everyone becomes Sato, we may have to be addressed by our first names or by numbers,” he said, according to the Mainichi.
“I don’t think that would be a good world to live in.”
Sato already accounts for 1.5 per cent of the population, with Suzuki coming in as number two.
The study was first published in March but some people online believed it was an April Fool’s day prank – which he denies.
He said the trend would lead to the loss of family and regional heritage as well.
According to his predictions, the proportion of people named Sato in Japan increased 1.0083 times between 2022 and 2023. If this remains the same, and there is no change to the law on family names, half of the population will have that name by 2446, and then all people will by 2531.
Under the current civil code, couples choose which surname they will share when they get married, but in 95% of cases, the female changes her name, not the male.
But the predictions would change if both persons in the marriage were able to use separate surnames.
Japan remains the only country in the world that requires spouses to use the same name. While maiden names can appear by the chosen married names on driving licences, passports and residence certificates, the law is still in place.
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