[3] After returning to Japan in 1947, Sugi auditioned at Toho studio's "New Face" competition and received a contract.

[4] She gave her debut in Tadashi Imai's 1949 Aoi sanmyaku, and performed in several other coming of age films.

[4] She repeatedly appeared in films of Mikio Naruse such as Repast, Husband and Wife (Sugi's only starring role in a Naruse film, replacing Setsuko Hara)[5] and Sound of the Mountain, and in Kinuyo Tanaka's The Eternal Breasts and The Moon Has Risen.

[1] In 1962, Sugi married an American, retired from the entertainment industry, and moved to the United States, where she worked at the New Otani Hotel in Los Angeles.

[4] Occasionally returning to Japan, she appeared in films like Shirō Toyoda's The Twilight Years.