Born in Kyoto, in 1981, Naoki Sakata begun the piano at the age of three. The practice of the electric guitar during his youth opens his curiosity towards different music style, then he oriented progressively to the composition.

　In 2003 he entered the Aichi University of the Arts where he obtained the diploma at the top of the composition class. He has been living in France since 2007, studied successively at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris (the superior diploma as the top of the class of Edith Lejet), then at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) at the class of Stefano Gervasoni (2008 – 2013). After obtaining the diploma in CNSMDP, he followed the cursus I at the IRCAM in 2014.

　He received numerous prizes and rewards such as the prize of Sacem (2008), the prize of Kuwabara (2006), the finaliste in the Japan Music Competition, and the Takefu Composition Prize (2011), the 36th Irino Prize (2015). In 2017 and 2018, he received three composition awards which are those of most prestigious ones in Japan, 1st prize in the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (2017, the only one judge was Heinz Holliger), the 28th Akutagawa Composition Award (2018), and the 66th Otaka Prize (2018) for the same piece “Paysages entrelacés”. That was the first brilliant achievement in the history of Japanese composers. He was supported by the scholarships of the Sacem (2007) and of the Rohm Music Foundation (2010 – 2011).

　His music has been performed in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and programed in prestigious festivals and projects such as the Takefu International Music Festival as invited composer, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Suntory Summer Festival by Suntory Foundation for the Arts, Music Tomorrow by NHK Symphony Orchestra, World Saxophone Congress, Composium by Tokyo Opera City Cultural Fondation, Vienna International SaxFest, Festival Musica in Strasbourg, the International Music Festival of Rima, Festival Toulouse Les Orgues and Voix Nouvelles in Royaumont. 

　He received diverse commissions by eminent organizations and musiciens such as French Ministry of Culture, France Musique, Suntory Fondation for the Arts, Takefu International Music Festival, Kyoto City Music Art and Cultural Promoting Foundation, Ensemble Cairn, Ensemble Nomad, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Hidejiro Honjoh, Hidetaka Nakagawa, Jeroen Berwaerts, Jun Nishimoto, Makoto Hondo, Masanori Oishi among others.

　His works are performed by prestigious orchestras such as NHK symphony orchestra, City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo philharmonic orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne, ensembles such as Ensemble 2E2M, Ensemble Alternance, Ensemble Cairn, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Linea, Ensemble Multilatérale, Ensemble Nomad, Ensemble Sillages, Quatuor Diotima, Quatuor Macrocosmos, Les Cris de Paris and Tokyo Sinfonietta, conductors such as Alexandre Bloch, Geoffroy Jourdain, Kahchun Wong, Kanako Abe, Ken Takaseki, Kentaro Kawase, Jean-Philippe Wurtz, Pierre Roullier, Ryusuke Numajiri, Stefan Asbury, Tito Ceccherini, and Yoichi Sugiyama. musiciens such as Fanny Vicens, Hidetaka Nakagawa, Jeroen Berwaerts, Jun Nishimoto, Madoka Fukami, Makoto Hondo, Masanori Oishi, Masato Kumoi, Raphaël Pidoux and Sumihisa Arima.

　He is the composer in residence at the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra (2020 – 2023) and Ensemble Écoute in Paris (2020 – 2022).

　He gives also regularly masterclasses as the invited professor at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris, the Tokyo University of the Arts, the Aichi University of the Arts, the Kyoto City University of Arts, the Music Department of the Toho Gakuen College, the Osaka Music College, the Kunitachi College of Music, and the Soai University. 

July 2023