[RadioKid]

Because most of Japanese people (farmers) does not have their family names before MEIJI era, they named their selves after the location of their living area like as 山田 （YAMADA: rice field in the mountain）, 中村 (NAKAMURA: center of the village), 田中 (TANAKA: in the middle of the rice fields) and so on.

Families with Non-geographic family names are descendants of SAMURAI or noble people. For example, 藤原(FUJIWARA),佐藤(SATO),加藤(KATO),藤田(FUJITA),藤本(FUJIMOTO) etc are related (vassal) families of the great FUJIWARA family.

In KYOTO, you will find strange names originated after noble positions.

In OKINAWA, they have their own RYUKYU origin names.

If you have Japanese friends, ask them what the origin of their family names are.

And I am also interested in the family names of foreign countries. How about in Taiwan?