Dr. Atsuko Sakai obtained her MSc degree in Nutrition Science at the University of Tokushima, Japan. She subsequently engaged in feeding service management at Kawasaki Medical School Hospital in Okayama, and in nutritional counseling and management for patients with kidney disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease at Kawashima Hospital in Tokushima. Following this, she taught nutritional theory and practice at two universities in Osaka and Nara. She joined the Nutritional Support Working Group of The Frontier of Renal Outcome Modifications in Japan (FROM-J Study), a strategic outcome study project supported by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. She earned her PhD from the University of Tokushima in 2017.

Dr. Sakai currently provides nutritional counseling as a nationally registered dietitian at Saito Medical Clinic while lecturing medical workers on how to best educate patients through coaching. She is also an executive director of The Japanese Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism (JSRNM) and adviser of The Program for Preventing Aggravation of CKD. She supports dialysis patients as a support member of Jinyu-kai (a group within the Japanese Association of Kidney Disease Patients) in Hyogo.

Her research interests include education, diet therapy, and prevention of malnutrition for CKD patients.