Ken-iti Sato

K. Sato, when abbreviated. 　K. I. Sato, K.-I. Sato, and K.-i. Sato are incorrect.

Not to be confused with:

Kenichi Sato, born 1938, author of many books in Japanese on the history of mathematics in 17-19 century Japan
Ken-ichi Sato, number-theorist, former professor of Nihon University at Koriyama
Ken-ichi Sato, professor, department of electrical engineering and computer science, Nagoya University
Kenichi Satou, statistician, lecturer, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University

Each Japanese name has its own Chinese character. It is written family name first and given name second. Sato is one of the most common family names in Japan. The character for Sa means to assist, and to means wisteria (fuji) and suggests a powerful family (Fujiwara) in 8-11 centuries. Ken-iti is also a common given name, but has several different Chinese characters that can be chosen when given the name. In my name, the character for Ken means health, and iti means one, or first. The hyphen between Ken and iti is for separate pronunciation.

If you pronounce sa to o ken y chi like in Spanish, it would be pretty close to my name.

There are also several ways to express a Japanese name using the alphabet. Sato, Satô, Satow, Satoh, and Satou are all different expressions of the same family name. Ken-iti, Keniti, Ken-ichi, Kenichi, and Ken'ichi are the same given name. We each choose and fix how we write our own names in the alphabet. Usually we change the order to given name first and family name second.

So, please refer to me accurately as Ken-iti Sato, as it is easily confused with other authors. Please use K. Sato when you abbreviate my name.

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