Top 20 Japanese Surnames

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By
Namiko Abe
Namiko Abe
Japanese Language Expert
  • B.A., Kwansei Gakuin University

Namiko Abe is a Japanese language teacher and translator, as well as a Japanese calligraphy expert. She has been a writer for nearly 20 years.

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Updated on August 02, 2024

Ever wondered what the Japanese equivalent of "Smith" is? Here is the list of the top 20 most common Japanese surnames. It is said that more than 100,000 surnames exist in Japanese, but roughly speaking one out of every 10 Japanese has a last name listed here.

Top 20 Japanese Last Names

  1. Sato
  2. Suzuki
  3. Takahashi
  4. Tanaka
  5. Watanabe
  6. Ito
  7. Yamamoto
  8. Nakamura
  9. Kobayashi
  10. Kato
  11. Yoshida
  12. Yamada
  13. Sasaki
  14. Yamaguchi
  15. Saito
  16. Matsumoto
  17. Inoue
  18. Kimura
  19. Hayashi
  20. Shimizu
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Your Citation
Abe, Namiko. "Top 20 Japanese Surnames." ThoughtCo, Aug. 2, 2024, thoughtco.com/top-japanese-surnames-2028100. Abe, Namiko. (2024, August 2). Top 20 Japanese Surnames. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/top-japanese-surnames-2028100 Abe, Namiko. "Top 20 Japanese Surnames." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/top-japanese-surnames-2028100 (accessed May 11, 2025).