During his tenure he was involved in the response to the Great Hanshin earthquake, the Tokyo subway sarin attack, the attempted assassination of Commissioner General Takaji Kunimatsu [ja] and the Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Peru.

In April of the same year he was moved to become Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management.

Sugita worked alongside Shinzo Abe who was Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for political affairs from 2000 to 2003.

[1][3] When Shinzo Abe became prime minister for his second time in December 2012, Sugita was appointed to serve as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for administrative affairs, the senior position held by a bureaucrat in the government.

This appointment was reportedly on the recommendation of Yoshiyuki Kasai [ja], president of the Central Japan Railway Company, who was a prominent supporter of Abe and a friend of Sugita.