A native of Kashiwa, Chiba, and a graduate of Meiji University, Sakurada served in the city assembly of Kashiwa for two terms from 1987 and in the assembly of Chiba Prefecture from 1995. He was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1996.
In October 2018, Sakurada entered the cabinet as the Minister of State for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games. He resigned from the post just six months later after suggesting that the re-election campaign of a ruling LDP lawmaker was of a higher priority than the 2011 earthquake and tsunami reconstruction effort.[1][4]
Positions
Affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi,[5] Sakurada attended a meeting on March 3, 2014, to seek a review of the Kono Statement and voiced his support for the revision.[6] In January 2016, he said that World War IIcomfort women were "professional prostitutes. That's business." He apologised later in the day.[7]
Sakurada is a member of the following right-wing Diet groups:
Conference of Parliamentarians on the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership (神道政治連盟国会議員懇談会) - NB: SAS a.k.a. Sinseiren, Shinto Political League, Shinto Seiji Renmei Kokkai Giin Kondankai
Parliamentarians Acting to Protect Japanese Territory (日本の領土を守るため行動する議員連盟)
Sakurada gave the following answers to the questionnaire submitted by Mainichi to parliamentarians in 2012:[8]
in favor of the revision of the Constitution
in favor of the right of collective self-defense (revision of Article 9)
against the reform of the National Assembly (unicameral instead of bicameral)
in favor of a potentially nuclear-armed Japan in the future
against the reform of the Imperial Household that would allow women to retain their Imperial status even after marriage
Remarks
Despite being deputy chief of the government's cyber-security strategy office, Sakurada admitted to the Japanese Diet in November 2018 that he had never used, and did not know how to use, a computer.[9][10]
At the forum in Tokyo, Sakurada said that "I was aiming for the position of Prime Minister in the past, but I cannot speak English and I cannot use a personal computer, so I will give up on it.".[11][12]
Sakurada often makes mistakes in speech and has strange pronunciation, so people in his hometown of Kashiwa call him "Tetsuro Degawa of Kashiwa".[13][14]
During the election of the House of Representatives, Sakurada who was speaking was suddenly attacked by an unemployed man who was drunk.[15]
Prior to taking office as Minister, Sakurada had put on his official site a cartoon depicting his life.[16][17] Sakurada is first Minister for Kashiwa and Abiko.
