Naoki Sato graduated Aeronautics Engineering Department, Kyusyu University in 1986, and gained master degree of applied engineering of Kyusyu University in 1988. At the same year, he entered in National Space Development Agency of Japan (predecessor of JAXA). Since 1990, he had been involved in the International Space Station program for about 16 years. After that, he started to work for the international space exploration program formulation up to now. He is the current ISECG chair since Apr. 2018. Also, he was assigned as the director of the Space Exploration System Technology Unit of JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSEC) in July 2018.