[9] Nakata began figure skating in 2011 at the age of three at a rink in Tokyo where his father, Makoto, coached at the time.

As the reigning Japanese national novice champion, Nakata was invited to skate in the gala at the 2020 NHK Trophy.

The subsequent season, Nakata won silver and gold, respectively, at the 2021 Tokyo Regionals and the 2021–22 Japan Novice Championships.

[12] In summer 2022, Nakata began training at the MF Figure Skating Academy in Chiba due to his father getting a coaching job there.

[15][12] At those championships, Nakata finished twenty-sixth in the short program and did not advance to the free skate segment of the competition.

[14] Competing on the 2023–24 ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit, Nakata began his season by winning gold at the 2023 JGP Thailand, landing a clean quad jump (the toe loop) for the first time in competition.

[5] He would subsequently win silver at the 2023 JGP Turkey behind South Korean skater, Seo Min-kyu.

[18] Nakata went on to win gold on the junior level of the 2023 Tokyo Regionals and the silver medal at the 2023 Japan Eastern Sectional Championships.

[16] Nakata entered the Youth Olympics in Gangwon as one of the favourites for the gold medal in the men's event, which had been won by Japanese the prior two editions.

However, after a "woeful" short program in which he made mistakes on two of three jumping passes and fell on a spin entry he finished thirteenth in the segment, and more than twenty points behind the leader.

"[24] Finishing the season at the 2024 World Junior Championships, Nakata had a difficult landing on his jump combination and lost a level on one of his spins, but still earned 77.60 points and came fifth in the segment.

In the free skate his only error was stepping out of a quad toe loop attempt, and he won the segment with a personal best score of 151.71, earning a gold small medal.

Nakata won the silver medal overall, 1.44 points behind champion Seo Min-kyu of South Korea.

Following the competition, Nakata expressed shock and elation at the result, saying, "I still haven't sorted my head out yet, but I finally achieved my goal.