Her routine to the music Rock U by Janet Jackson scored 79.24 to give her a six point lead over South Korea’s Lee Hae-in who sits in silver medal position after receiving a career best 73.62.

Mai Mihara, another Japanese skater is on 0.16 points behind Lee on 73.46 just ahead of 16 year old Isabeau Levito of the United States who was World Junior Champion last year is close behind in fourth with a score of 73.03.

Loena Hendrickx of Belgium won silver last year but slipped back to fifth after a fall left her with a score of 71.94.

"I haven’t been confident with my short programme all season so usually, when I go into my short programme, there are some uncertainties and anxiety, but I thought I was thorough today," Sakamoto admitted.

"Today I was doing very well in practice, and I wasn’t making any mistakes. 

"So I knew that I could just put everything out there, and that’s exactly what I was able to do."

Sakamoto is set to skate for gold on Friday (March 24).

Japan also lead the way in the pairs skating after Olympic team bronze medallists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara scored 80.72 in the short programme.

2022 World Champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the United States are back in second after they scored 74.64.

Italy’s 2023 European gold medallists Sara Conti and Nicolo Macii are third after scoring 73.24.

Competition continues with the pairs free programme tomorrow and the men's short programme.