Japanese names consist of a family name, followed by a given name.
In the West, Japanese names are normally written in the reverse order. For example, the author Kawabata Yasunari is known in the West as Yasunari Kawabata. Note that some authors in the West use the Japanese format. Family Names Commoners were not allowed to use family names until after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when they were allowed to create a surname or borrow an existing one. However, some surnames consist of one or three or more characters.