 Saito was selected to play the heroine in the NHK morning TV novel series "Hane Konma" in 1986.This series garnered a rating of 41.7% for its timeslot.At the end of the year, she was the captain of the Red Team on "Kōhaku Uta Gassen", where she debuted her song, "Kanashimi yo Konnichi wa", the first opening theme for the anime television series "Maison Ikkoku".