JAPAN is on track for everyone to have the same surname by 2531, a shocking simulation has predicted.
Fears the prediction will become a reality are growing as married couples are forbidden to use different family names.
Japan is the only country in the world that requires spouses to use the same last name, following an archaic civil code from 1898.
As of 2023 the most common last name in Japan was Sato, accounting for about 1.5% of the total population.
Economist professor at Tohoku University, Hiroshi Yoshida, has forecast that if this continues every Japanese person will be known as Sato by 2531.
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Social media users assumed this was an April Fool's Day prank, with the simulation of scenes, shops and sports jerseys sporting only Sato characters as part of the Think Name Project campaign.
But the statistics forecast a possible future 500 years from now.
Around 500,000 new marriages are registered a year in Japan, meaning that nearly 500,000 people lose their last names per annum.
The annual growth rate of “Sato” is thought to be increasing by 1.0083 per cent according to data between 2022 and 2023.
If no changes are made to the legislation, the hypothesis suggests 50 percent of family names will be Sato by 2246.
Professor Yoshida told Japanese Newspaper, The Mainichi: "If everyone becomes Sato, we may have to be addressed by our first names or by numbers.
“I don’t think that would be a good world to live in.”
The study, using data from the Japanese Trade and Union Confederation in 2022, also claimed that if different surnames were allowed it would delay the possibility of one dominant name to 7.96% by 2531.
But they suggest that due to the declining birth rate it is predicted the Japanese population will be extinct by then.
The Think Name Project and other organisations want to legalise the option of maintaining different surnames in marriages.
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Japan is the only country in the world that still mandates married couples to use the same name.
While the government allows maiden names to appear alongside married names on driving licences and passports, Yoshida shows the trend of "Sato" is set to drive out less common names in the future.
