This sly-faced actor joined Toho in 1956, and was shortly playing villains of one type or another, most famously in the nearly dialogue-free role of the elusive gangster in Ishiro Honda's Bijo to Ekitai Ningen (aka The H-Man, 1958). The following year, Toho promoted him to stardom in Kihachi Okamoto's surprise smash hit, the cynical war picture Dokuritsu Gurentai (Desperado Outpost, 1959). Thereafter he split his time between toplining Toho's war pictures and gangster pictures (but not always as the villain now). Typical of his gangster films are Ishiro Honda's Shinko no ko (1960) and Jun Fukuda's Ankokugai no Kiba (Fangs of the Underworld, 1962). This latter role allowed him to show off his comedic talents, as he played a gangster who is constantly frustrated in his hobby-quest to build the perfect house of cards. Sato remains working and much in demand in Japanese films and TV through the present day.