List of common Japanese surnames explained

Officially, among Japanese names there are 291,129 different,^[1] 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.^[2] The top 10 surnames cover approximately 10% of the population, while the top 100 surnames cover slightly more than 33%.^[3]

This ranking is a result of an August 2008 study by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company,^[3] which included approximately 6,118,000 customers of Meiji Yasuda's insurance and annuities.

Rank	Name		2008 estimates
	Kanji	Romaji	Numbers	width=50	%
1	Japanese: 佐藤	Satō	1,990,000	1.57
2	Japanese: 鈴木	Suzuki	1,900,000	1.50
3	Japanese: 高橋	Takahashi	1,470,000	1.16
4	Japanese: 田中	Tanaka	1,340,000	1.06
5	Japanese: 渡辺	Watanabe	1,200,000	0.95
6	Japanese: 伊藤	Itō	1,150,000	0.91
7	Japanese: 中村	Nakamura	1,080,000	0.85
8	Japanese: 小林	Kobayashi	1,060,000	0.84
9	Japanese: 山本	Yamamoto	1,020,000	0.81
10	Japanese: 加藤	Katō	920,000	0.73
11	Japanese: 吉田	Yoshida	850,000	—
12	Japanese: 山田	Yamada	820,000	—
13	Japanese: 佐々木	Sasaki	710,000	—
14	Japanese: 山口	Yamaguchi	640,000	—
15	Japanese: 松本	Matsumoto	630,000	—
16	Japanese: 井上	Inoue	600,000	—
17	Japanese: 木村	Kimura	580,000	—
18	Japanese: 清水	Shimizu	560,000	—
19	Japanese: 林	Hayashi	550,000	—
20	Japanese: 斉藤	Saitō	530,000	—
21	Japanese: 斎藤	Saitō	520,000	—
22	Japanese: 山崎	Yamazaki Yamasaki	490,000	—
23	Japanese: 中島	Nakajima Nakashima	480,000	—
24	Japanese: 森	Mori	470,000	—
25	Japanese: 阿部	Abe	470,000	—
26	Japanese: 池田	Ikeda	450,000	—
27	Japanese: 橋本	Hashimoto	450,000	—
28	Japanese: 石川	Ishikawa	440,000	—
29	Japanese: 山下	Yamashita	410,000	—
30	Japanese: 小川	Ogawa	410,000	—
31	Japanese: 石井	Ishii	400,000	—
32	Japanese: 長谷川	Hasegawa	390,000	—
33	Japanese: 後藤	Gotō	390,000	—
34	Japanese: 岡田	Okada	380,000	—
35	Japanese: 近藤	Kondō	370,000	—
36	Japanese: 前田	Maeda	370,000	—
37	Japanese: 藤田	Fujita	370,000	—
38	Japanese: 遠藤	Endō	360,000	—
39	Japanese: 青木	Aoki	350,000	—
40	Japanese: 坂本	Sakamoto	350,000	—
41	Japanese: 村上	Murakami	340,000	—
42	Japanese: 太田	Ōta	320,000	—
43	Japanese: 金子	Kaneko	310,000	—
44	Japanese: 藤井	Fujii	310,000	—
45	Japanese: 福田	Fukuda	300,000	—
46	Japanese: 西村	Nishimura	300,000	—
47	Japanese: 三浦	Miura	300,000	—
48	Japanese: 竹内	Takeuchi	290,000	—
49	Japanese: 中川	Nakagawa	290,000	—
50	Japanese: 岡本	Okamoto	290,000	—
51	Japanese: 松田	Matsuda	290,000	—
52	Japanese: 原田	Harada	290,000	—
53	Japanese: 中野	Nakano	290,000	—
54	Japanese: 小野	Ono	280,000	—
55	Japanese: 田村	Tamura	280,000	—
56	Japanese: 藤原	Fujiwara Fujihara	270,000	—
57	Japanese: 中山	Nakayama	270,000	—
58	Japanese: 石田	Ishida	270,000	—
59	Japanese: 小島	Kojima	260,000	—
60	Japanese: 和田	Wada	260,000	—
61	Japanese: 森田	Morita	250,000	—
62	Japanese: 内田	Uchida	250,000	—
63	Japanese: 柴田	Shibata	250,000	—
64	Japanese: 酒井	Sakai	240,000	—
65	Japanese: 原	Hara	240,000	—
66	Japanese: 高木	Takagi Takaki	240,000	—
67	Japanese: 横山	Yokoyama	240,000	—
68	Japanese: 安藤	Andō	240,000	—
69	Japanese: 宮崎	Miyazaki Miyasaki	240,000	—
70	Japanese: 上田	Ueda Ueta	240,000	—
71	Japanese: 島田	Shimada	230,000	—
72	Japanese: 工藤	Kudō	230,000	—
73	Japanese: 大野	Ōno	220,000	—
74	Japanese: 宮本	Miyamoto	220,000	—
75	Japanese: 杉山	Sugiyama	220,000	—
76	Japanese: 今井	Imai	220,000	—
77	Japanese: 丸山	Maruyama	210,000	—
78	Japanese: 増田	Masuda	210,000	—
79	Japanese: 高田	Takada Takata	210,000	—
80	Japanese: 村田	Murata	210,000	—
81	Japanese: 平野	Hirano	210,000	—
82	Japanese: 大塚	Ōtsuka	210,000	—
83	Japanese: 菅原	Sugawara Sugahara	210,000	—
84	Japanese: 武田	Takeda Taketa	200,000	—
85	Japanese: 新井	Arai	200,000	—
86	Japanese: 小山	Koyama Oyama	200,000	—
87	Japanese: 野口	Noguchi	200,000	—
88	Japanese: 桜井	Sakurai	200,000	—
89	Japanese: 千葉	Chiba	200,000	—
90	Japanese: 岩崎	Iwasaki	200,000	—
91	Japanese: 佐野	Sano	200,000	—
92	Japanese: 谷口	Taniguchi	200,000	—
93	Japanese: 上野	Ueno	200,000	—
94	Japanese: 松井	Matsui	190,000	—
95	Japanese: 河野	Kōno Kawano	190,000	—
96	Japanese: 市川	Ichikawa	190,000	—
97	Japanese: 渡部	Watanabe Watabe	190,000	—
98	Japanese: 野村	Nomura	180,000	—
99	Japanese: 菊地	Kikuchi	180,000	—
100	Japanese: 木下	Kinoshita	180,000	—

Notes and References

1. Book: 日本苗字大辞典 [''Japanese Surname Dictionary''] ]. 芳文館 [Houbunkan] . 1996 . 4990058402 .
2. Book: Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Surnames and How to Read Them. Wolfgang Hadamitzky. 9783110969887. Walter de Gruyter . 2016 .
3. 明治安田生命 全国同姓調査 [''Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company - National same family name investigation''] ]. . 2008-09-24 . 2012-05-30.