Most Common Japanese Last Names And Meaning Top 50
There are an estimated 100,000 last names in Japan, a vast number in comparison to most Western countries. Also, considering Korea (Most Common Korean Last Names), one of Japan’s neighboring Asian countries, has a mere 200 last names, the sheer difference is staggering. Listed below are the top 50 most common Japanese last names.

Top 50 Japanese Last Names and Meanings
- Sato – The to in Sato is a Japanese character for Fuji, which indicates connections with the Fujiwara clan and Sa means a bureaucratic title.
- Suzuki – Bell tree
- Takahashi – The Japanese characters Taka mean ‘tall’, ‘high’ and hashi means ‘bridge’.
- Tanaka – dweller in the rice fields
- Watanabe – ferry side
- Ito – The one
- Yamamoto – Base of the mountain
- Nakamura – Village in the middle
- Kobayashi – Small forest
- Kato – Increase wisteria
- Yamada – Mountain rice paddy
- Sasaki – “Sa” means to help or aid, and “ki” means tree or wood.
- Yamaguchi – Mountain entrance
- Saito – Also known as Sato, which is number 1 in our list.
- Abe – Peace
- Ikeda – Rice paddy near the lake
- Hashimoto – One who lives near the bridge
- Nishikawa – Western River
- Fuji – Wisteria
- Ogawa – Small River
- Goto – Behind wisteria, OR five islands
- Aoki – green tree
- Makino – Shepherd field
- Otake – Large bamboo
- Miura – Three bays
- Fujihara- Wisteria plain
- Okamoto – One who lives at the base of the hill
- Nakano – Central Field
- Kaneko – Golden child
- Wada – Harmonious rice paddy
- Nakayama -Central mountain
- Ueda – Upper rice paddy
- Hara – Field, Plain
- Shibata – Turf/Rice Paddy
- Sakai – Sake means ‘rice wine’, and I means ‘well’
- Uchida – Inner paddy fields
- Bando – East of the slope
- Imai – New place of residence
- Ueno – Upper Field
- Masuda – Increasing rice paddy
- Chiba – A thousand leaves
- Kubo – Sunken Ground
- Sakurai – Cherry blossom well
- Noguchi – Entrance of the field
- Nomura – Village in the field
- Kikuchi – Chrysanthemum pond
- Sano – Small Field
- Sugimoto – One who lives beneath the cedars
- Imamura – New village
- Ichikawa – City River
Most Common Japanese Last Names By City
Listed below are the 5 most common Japanese last names, according to city. We have only listed the top 5 major Japanese cities for you in this worldlastnames.com article.
Tokyo – Suzuki, Sato, Takahashi, Tanaka, Kobayashi
Osaka -Yamamoto, Tanaka, Yoshida, Nakamura Matsumoto
Hiroshima – Yamamoto, Tanaka, Fujii, Sato, Takahashi
Kyoto – Tanaka, Yamamoto, Nakamura, Inoue, Yoshida
Okinawa – Higa, Kinjo, Oshiro, Miyagi, Aragaki
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