Sato was born in Tokyo, Japanese in 1973. Sato skated in the shadow of Midori Ito, a popular figure skater and the first woman to land the triple Axel jump. Sato's first international success was winning the 1990 World Junior title. She then finished 7th at the 1992 and 8th at the subsequent World Championships. Ito retired from amateur skating following a 2nd place finish at these Olympic Games. Subsequently, Sato defeated Nancy Kerrigan and Chen Lu, reigning world medalists, at the start of the 1992-1993 season in the important Skate America competition. She also became the Japanese National Figure Skating champion in 1993. That season, she finished 4th at the World Championships in Prague after a performance that included four clean triple jumps.