A study led by the Tohoku University (northern Japan) predicts that by the year 2,500 all Japanese will have the last name 'Sato', currently the most common family name in the Asian country, due to the current trend of demographic decline and current civil regulations.
This academic estimates that the number of people with the surname Sato has multiplied by 1.0083 in recent years, and carried out a survey of how this figure would evolve taking into account the demographic trends of accelerated aging and decrease in the number of births, which are resulting in a continuous net loss of population.
Their study also takes into account the Japanese regulations that establish that upon contracting a marriage, a husband and wife must adopt same family name, either his or hers. In Japan, only a surname and a given name are used.
From these factors, Yoshida estimates that in the year 2446 half of the Japanese population will have the last name 'Sato' and that by 2531 all Japanese They will have the same last name.
The study has been made public in the midst of the continuing debate in Japan about the aforementioned civil regulations on surnames. Many voices, including some from the ruling party, demand that husband and wife be able to keep their family names after get marry, or even have two surnames, as is the case in countries like Spain.
The authors of the report sought to “illustrate with numbers the problem posed by the selective separation of surnames in marriages“, according to Yoshida when presenting his report.
“If everyone has the last name 'Sato san' ('Don or Mrs. Sato'), there will be no choice but to use only the first name to identify. That would not be an ideal scenario,” said the professor, in statements reported by local media.
EFE
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