It's fundamentally impossible to sort lists of people from different cultures, because collation differs. Say you have the last-names 佐藤 (SATO) and 中村 (NAKAMUR

It's fundamentally impossible to sort lists of people from different cultures, because collation differs. Say you have the last-names 佐藤 (SATO) and 中村 (NAKAMURA). In Japanese, collation is based on the kana sounds, so 佐藤 -> さ (SA) and 中村 -> な (NA). But the 五十音 (gojuon) ordering of the kana has さ before な, so 佐藤 should be before 中村. Good luck attempting to do a culturally-neutral ordering of 佐藤, 中村, SALMON and NABARRO - someone is going to be confused.