Japanese politician
Yasuhiro Sonoda (園田 康博, Sonoda Yasuhiro, born June 9, 1967) is a former Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Democratic Party of Japan.
Early life
A native of Amakusa District, Kumamoto, he attended Nihon University as undergraduate and graduate students and Keio University as a research student.[1]
Political career
Sonoda was elected for the first time in 2003 after unsuccessful runs in 1998 and 2000.[1]
Sonoda became internationally known for drinking a glass of water, collected from puddles under the reactor buildings at the radioactively polluted Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and then decontaminated, during a press conference in October 2011 after being challenged to do so.[2][3]
Sonoda quit politics in June 2015, following a failed run in the 2014 Japanese general election.[4]
Post-political career
He served as representative director of ACD, an online shopping subsidiary of All Nippon Airways, from March 2018 to March 2020, when he was transferred to WeSearch, an ACD subsidiary.[5]
Death hoax
In the wake of the August 2023 discharge of ALPS-decontaminated water of the Fukushima Daiichi, widespread hoaxes on the Chinese internet claimed that Sonoda died of cancer in Palau.[6] On September 2, 2023, Sonoda was interviewed by Kyodo News via telephone, in which he "once again" apologized to the people of Fukushima – for his actions being made into a rumor.[7] The Kyodo News was accompanied with neither an interview audio nor any latest photo of Sonoda.
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