[3] Sato's beaked whale is one of the poorly distinguished species in the genus Berardius.

It was distinguished from Arnoux's and Baird's beaked whale in 2019 on the basis of mtDNA differences.

[5] The common name for Berardius minimus is in recognition of Hal Sato, a Hokkaido-based researcher whose photographs of the whales helped to distinguish this species from other beaked whales (note the image credit in Figure 1 and Figure 2 from the Yamada et.

[6][7] The species' distribution, based on genetic samples from strandings only, is believed to include the southern Sea of Okhotsk north of Hokkaido, the Commander Islands, and the southeastern Bering Sea.

[5] Although very little is known about the ecology and populations of Sato's beaked whale, the IUCN has assigned the species a classification of Near threatened based on its estimated low population numbers.