Officially, among Japanese names there are 291,129 different Japanese surnames (姓, sei), as determined by their kanji, although many of these are pronounced and romanized similarly. Conversely, some surnames written the same in kanji may also be pronounced differently. The top 10 surnames cover approximately 10% of the population, while the top 100 surnames cover slightly more than 33%.
This ranking is a result of an August 2008 study by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company, which included approximately 6,118,000 customers of Meiji Yasuda's insurance and annuities.
List
| Rank | Name | 2008 estimates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanji | Romaji | Numbers | % | |
| 1 | 佐藤 | Satō | 1,990,000 | 1.57 |
| 2 | 鈴木 | Suzuki | 1,900,000 | 1.50 |
| 3 | 高橋 | Takahashi | 1,470,000 | 1.16 |
| 4 | 田中 | Tanaka | 1,340,000 | 1.06 |
| 5 | 渡辺 | Watanabe | 1,200,000 | 0.95 |
| 6 | 伊藤 | Itō | 1,150,000 | 0.91 |
| 7 | 中村 | Nakamura | 1,080,000 | 0.85 |
| 8 | 小林 | Kobayashi | 1,060,000 | 0.84 |
| 9 | 山本 | Yamamoto | 1,020,000 | 0.81 |
| 10 | 加藤 | Katō | 920,000 | 0.73 |
| 11 | 吉田 | Yoshida | 850,000 | — |
| 12 | 山田 | Yamada | 820,000 | — |
| 13 | 佐々木 | Sasaki | 710,000 | — |
| 14 | 山口 | Yamaguchi | 640,000 | — |
| 15 | 松本 | Matsumoto | 630,000 | — |
| 16 | 井上 | Inoue | 600,000 | — |
| 17 | 木村 | Kimura | 580,000 | — |
| 18 | 清水 | Shimizu | 560,000 | — |
| 19 | 林 | Hayashi | 550,000 | — |
| 20 | 斉藤 | Saitō | 530,000 | — |
| 21 | 斎藤 | Saitō | 520,000 | — |
| 22 | 山崎 | Yamazaki Yamasaki |
490,000 | — |
| 23 | 中島 | Nakajima Nakashima |
480,000 | — |
| 24 | 森 | Mori | 470,000 | — |
| 25 | 阿部 | Abe | 470,000 | — |
| 26 | 池田 | Ikeda | 450,000 | — |
| 27 | 橋本 | Hashimoto | 450,000 | — |
| 28 | 石川 | Ishikawa | 440,000 | — |
| 29 | 山下 | Yamashita | 410,000 | — |
| 30 | 小川 | Ogawa | 410,000 | — |
| 31 | 石井 | Ishii | 400,000 | — |
| 32 | 長谷川 | Hasegawa | 390,000 | — |
| 33 | 後藤 | Gotō | 390,000 | — |
| 34 | 岡田 | Okada | 380,000 | — |
| 35 | 近藤 | Kondō | 370,000 | — |
| 36 | 前田 | Maeda | 370,000 | — |
| 37 | 藤田 | Fujita | 370,000 | — |
| 38 | 遠藤 | Endō | 360,000 | — |
| 39 | 青木 | Aoki | 350,000 | — |
| 40 | 坂本 | Sakamoto | 350,000 | — |
| 41 | 村上 | Murakami | 340,000 | — |
| 42 | 太田 | Ōta | 320,000 | — |
| 43 | 金子 | Kaneko | 310,000 | — |
| 44 | 藤井 | Fujii | 310,000 | — |
| 45 | 福田 | Fukuda | 300,000 | — |
| 46 | 西村 | Nishimura | 300,000 | — |
| 47 | 三浦 | Miura | 300,000 | — |
| 48 | 竹内 | Takeuchi | 290,000 | — |
| 49 | 中川 | Nakagawa | 290,000 | — |
| 50 | 岡本 | Okamoto | 290,000 | — |
| 51 | 松田 | Matsuda | 290,000 | — |
| 52 | 原田 | Harada | 290,000 | — |
| 53 | 中野 | Nakano | 290,000 | — |
| 54 | 小野 | Ono | 280,000 | — |
| 55 | 田村 | Tamura | 280,000 | — |
| 56 | 藤原 | Fujiwara Fujihara |
270,000 | — |
| 57 | 中山 | Nakayama | 270,000 | — |
| 58 | 石田 | Ishida | 270,000 | — |
| 59 | 小島 | Kojima | 260,000 | — |
| 60 | 和田 | Wada | 260,000 | — |
| 61 | 森田 | Morita | 250,000 | — |
| 62 | 内田 | Uchida | 250,000 | — |
| 63 | 柴田 | Shibata | 250,000 | — |
| 64 | 酒井 | Sakai | 240,000 | — |
| 65 | 原 | Hara | 240,000 | — |
| 66 | 高木 | Takagi Takaki |
240,000 | — |
| 67 | 横山 | Yokoyama | 240,000 | — |
| 68 | 安藤 | Andō | 240,000 | — |
| 69 | 宮崎 | Miyazaki Miyasaki |
240,000 | — |
| 70 | 上田 | Ueda Ueta |
240,000 | — |
| 71 | 島田 | Shimada | 230,000 | — |
| 72 | 工藤 | Kudō | 230,000 | — |
| 73 | 大野 | Ōno | 220,000 | — |
| 74 | 宮本 | Miyamoto | 220,000 | — |
| 75 | 杉山 | Sugiyama | 220,000 | — |
| 76 | 今井 | Imai | 220,000 | — |
| 77 | 丸山 | Maruyama | 210,000 | — |
| 78 | 増田 | Masuda | 210,000 | — |
| 79 | 高田 | Takada Takata |
210,000 | — |
| 80 | 村田 | Murata | 210,000 | — |
| 81 | 平野 | Hirano | 210,000 | — |
| 82 | 大塚 | Ōtsuka | 210,000 | — |
| 83 | 菅原 | Sugawara Sugahara |
210,000 | — |
| 84 | 武田 | Takeda Taketa |
200,000 | — |
| 85 | 新井 | Arai | 200,000 | — |
| 86 | 小山 | Koyama Oyama |
200,000 | — |
| 87 | 野口 | Noguchi | 200,000 | — |
| 88 | 桜井 | Sakurai | 200,000 | — |
| 89 | 千葉 | Chiba | 200,000 | — |
| 90 | 岩崎 | Iwasaki | 200,000 | — |
| 91 | 佐野 | Sano | 200,000 | — |
| 92 | 谷口 | Taniguchi | 200,000 | — |
| 93 | 上野 | Ueno | 200,000 | — |
| 94 | 松井 | Matsui | 190,000 | — |
| 95 | 河野 | Kōno Kawano |
190,000 | — |
| 96 | 市川 | Ichikawa | 190,000 | — |
| 97 | 渡部 | Watanabe Watabe |
190,000 | — |
| 98 | 野村 | Nomura | 180,000 | — |
| 99 | 菊地 | Kikuchi | 180,000 | — |
| 100 | 木下 | Kinoshita | 180,000 | — |
References
- 日本苗字大辞典 [Japanese Surname Dictionary]. 芳文館 . 1996. ISBN 4990058402.
- Wolfgang Hadamitzky, ed. (2016). Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Surnames and How to Read Them. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110969887.
- ^ "明治安田生命 全国同姓調査 [Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company - National same family name investigation]" (PDF) (Press release). Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
| Japan articles | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| History |
| ||||||||||||
| Geography | |||||||||||||
| Politics |
| ||||||||||||
| Economy | |||||||||||||
| Society | |||||||||||||
| Personal names and anthroponymy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| By sequence | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| By trait | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| By life situation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pseudonyms (list) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| By culture Surnames by country |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| By religion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manners of address List of authority / honour |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related traditions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||||||||||||||||