He is a former president of the Japan Shogi Association as well as former holder of the Ryūō, Meijin, Oshō, Kisei, Kiō major titles.

He repeated as champion the following year when he won the 10th Hayazashi Shinei Tournament when he defeated Taku Morishita in the final.

[11] Satō then proceeded to defeat Tanigawa 4 games to 3 to win the Meijin title for the first time.

[3] The following year, however, Habu was successful in retaking the title from Satō, winning the 52nd Ōshō match 4 games to 0.

[17][18] In 2007, Satō defeated Toshiyuki Moriuchi (the reigning Meijin at the time) to win the 56th NHK Cup Shogi TV tournament.

[22][23] He was known to use a lot of jōseki positions as a young player, but since 2005 he has often opted for choosing to play creatively with the standard strategies.

[26] In addition to major titles, Satō has won twelve other shogi championships during his career.

Satō has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career for his accomplishments in both on an off the shogi board.

[28][29] Satō has finished in the "Top 10" of the JSA's year-end prize money and game fee rankings [ja] each year from 1993 to 2014, and then again in 2017.

Satō served as the chairman of the Shogi Professional Players' Association [ja] from April 2011 until January 2017.