Despite today’s date, this is not an April Fool’s prank. At a press conference in Tokyo last weekend, professor Hiroshi Yoshida from the Tohoku University Research Center for Aged Economy and Society, sounded the alarm bell for a looming crisis. By the year 2531, everyone in Japan will have the surname Sato.
Given that more than 95% of wives in Japan take their husband’s surname, the single-surname rule not only drives down the diversity of surnames but also adds fuels to the fire of gender inequality.
japan should takes notes from vietnam, which is following the path to this outcome, but for different reasons. taken from vietcetera:
In the Nguyễn Dynasty (1802 - 1945), people with great merit to the royal family were awarded by being given the national family name. They would have the same surname as that of the royal family members.
apparently the royal family handed this name out a bit too freely, the end result is that 40% of the population now uses one surname.
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