Saito received her PhD from Kyoto University (supervisor Diwakar Acharya) in 2015. Her dissertation was on Maṇḍana Miśra’s Sphoṭasiddhi, and her work accordingly concentrates on philosophical theories of language. After her PhD, a JSPS Post-Doc fellowship brought her to Kyushu University (2015–2017).

During a stay as a JSPS Overseas Research Fellow in Pondicherry (2018–2020), as well as subsequent studies there, she kept pursuing work on Maṇḍana, broadened the spectrum of her research to encompass Bhartṛhari’s Vākyapadīya as well as the sonic cosmology of Śaiva Siddhānta, and acquired skills in South Indian palaeography. In this context, she began to pursue several projects focusing on first-time editions of interrelated Sanskrit works as well as problems in the history of Indian philosophical and religious ideas that are raised by these texts (Maṇḍana’s Bhāvanāviveka; an unpublished anonymous commentary on the Ratnatrayaparīkṣā by Śrīkaṇṭha, a dualistic Śaiva thinker; the Vivaraṇa on Yogasūtra 3.17).

Since April 2026, Saito has been working on the FWF-funded project Theories of Error in Medieval Indian Philosophy, which focuses on Maṇḍana Miśra’s contributions to the theories of error of his time.

Saito’s work relates to several research interests pursued at the IKGA in Indian philosophy and religion, including the interface of brahmanical and Buddhist philosophy in the period after Dharmakīrti.