Born in Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, He published more than a hundred books on film, and was one of Japan's foremost scholars and historians addressing film.

He was recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on Japanese cinema specifically, although little of his work had been translated for publication abroad.

[1] He also wrote books on Chinese,[b 1] Korean,[b 2] American[b 3] and European[b 4] films.

[b 5] Sato has also frequently appeared as a primary source in the writing of other Japanese film historians, notably Donald Richie[2] and Joan Mellen.

Tadao Sato's reflections on the Golden Age of cinema can be found in English translation in Abigail Deveney's scholarly paper: Influential Storytelling at its Finest: Why the Postwar West Took Notice of Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story