Yuji Sakamoto

Japanese screenwriter (born 1967)

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Yuji Sakamoto

Born|  (1967-05-12) 12 May 1967 (age 58)

Osaka, Japan

Occupation| Writer
Spouse|

Yoko Moriguchi

(m. 1998)​

Yūji Sakamoto (坂元裕二, Sakamoto Yūji; born 12 May 1967) is a Japanese screenwriter, lyricist, and playwright.

## Early life

[edit]

Yūji Sakamoto was born on 12 May 1967 in Osaka.[1][2]

## Career

[edit]

At the age of 19, Sakamoto won the 1st Fuji TV Young Scenario Award.[2] At the age of 23, he wrote the screenplay for Tokyo Love Story.[3] In 1996 he wrote the script for the Dreamcast audio drama game Real Sound: Kaze no Regret with Kenji Eno. This game was specially developed for blind and visually impaired players.[4][5] He has written the scripts for many popular Japanese television dramas, including Our Textbook, Still, Life Goes On, Matrimonial Chaos, Mother, Woman, The Best Divorce, and Quartet. Many of his works have been remade in international productions. His recent works include Anone, My Dear Exes, and Love with a Case. His filmography includes We Made a Beautiful Bouquet (2021), starring Masaki Suda and Kasumi Arimura.[2] Sakamoto wrote the screenplay for Hirokazu Kore-eda's film Monster (2023). It was the first time since his feature film debut Maborosi (1995) that Kore-eda was not responsible for the screenplay. The two had expressed a mutual respect for each other's work and had attended the same school when they were younger.[6] Monster premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival,[7] where Sakamoto won the Best Screenplay award.[8]

In April 2016, he was appointed as a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts's Graduate School of Film and New Media.[9]

In 2017, Sakamoto won the Best Screenwriter award at the 92nd Television Drama Academy Awards [ja] for his work on the drama Quartet.[10][11]

In April 2023, Sakamoto was awarded a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon[12] and in May 2023, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay for Monster.[13]

Sakomoto wrote and produced In Love and Deep Water for Netflix, and the film premiered in 2023. He and Netflix signed a five-year collaboration agreement in June 2023.[14]

## Personal life

[edit]

In 1998, he married actress Yoko Moriguchi.[15]

## Filmography

[edit]

### Television

[edit]

Year  | Title  | Notes

|
|

1989  | Dōkyūsei |
1990  | Nippon-ichi no Kattobi Otoko |
1991  | Tokyo Love Story | [16]
1992  | Hatachi no Yakusoku |
1996  | Tsubasa o Kudasai! |
2002  | Remote |
2003  | Anata no Tonari ni Dare ka Iru |
2004  | Itoshi Kimi e |
Last Christmas |
2006  | Saiyūki |
Top Caster |
2007  | Our Textbook |
2008  | Ryokiteki na Kanojo |
Taiyo to Umi no Kyoshitsu |
2010  | Cheisu: Kokuzei sasatsukan |
Mother |
2011  | Soredemo, Ikite Yuku |
2012  | Makete, Katsu: Sengo o Tsukutta Otoko Shigeru Yoshida |
2013  | The Best Divorce |
Woman |
2014  | Mosaic Japan |
Oyaji no Senaka | Episode: "Wedding Match"
2015  | Mondai no Aru Restaurant |
2016  | Love That Makes You Cry |
2017  | Quartet | [17]
2018  | Anone | [18]
2021  | My Dear Exes | [19]
2022  | Love with a Case | [20]

### Film

[edit]

Year  | Title  | Director  | Notes

|
|
|

1996  | Yuri | Yuji Sakamoto  |
1998  | Tokyo Eyes | Jean-Pierre Limosin |
2004  | Crying Out Love in the Center of the World | Isao Yukisada |
2005  | Gimî hebun | Toru Matsuura  |
2007  | Saiyūki | Kensaku Sawada  |
2021  | We Made a Beautiful Bouquet | Nobuhiro Doi | [21]
2023  | Monster | Hirokazu Kore-eda | [22]
In Love and Deep Water | Yusuke Taki  | [23]
2025  | First Kiss | Ayuko Tsukahara | [24]
Unreachable | Nobuhiro Doi | [25]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ 近藤 正高 (12 May 2017). "ご存知ですか？ 5月12日は脚本家・坂元裕二の誕生日です". Shūkan Bunshun (in Japanese). Retrieved 27 May 2023.
2. ^ a b c Monster Film Committee. "Monster" (PDF). Festival de Cannes. p. 6. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
3. ^ "Faculty". fm.geidai.ac.jp. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
4. ^ "eno blog: そろそろゲームのことを語ろうか。第２回『リアルサウンド 〜風のリグレット〜』". fyto.com. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
5. ^ "Real Sound: Kaze no Regret (1997)". MobyGames. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
6. ^ "監督・編集：是枝裕和 / 脚本：坂元裕二". Gaga.ne.jp. 18 November 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
7. ^ Rooney, David (17 May 2023). "'Monster' Review: Hirokazu Kore-eda Measures the Weight of Bullying on Childhood Friendship in Tender But Diffuse Drama". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
8. ^ Coyle, Jake (27 May 2023). "'Anatomy of a Fall' wins top prize at Cannes Film Festival". Associated Press. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
9. ^ "坂元裕二教授（脚本領域）就任のお知らせ". geidai-film.jp (in Japanese). 20 April 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
10. ^ "Winners of the 92nd Television Drama Academy Awards". Arama. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
11. ^ "第92回 ドラマアカデミー賞 受賞一覧". ザテレビジョン. KADOKAWA. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
12. ^ "「カルテット」「東京ラブストーリー」脚本家、坂元裕二さんらに春の褒章". Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). 28 April 2023. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
13. ^ Debruge, Peter (27 May 2023). "Cannes Awards: 'Anatomy of a Fall' Takes Palme d'Or, 'The Zone of Interest' and 'The Pot au Feu' Among Winners". Variety. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
14. ^ Brzeski, Patrick (28 June 2023). "Netflix Inks 5-Year Deal With Japanese Screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
15. ^ "森口瑤子の長女が宝塚音楽学校に在学中 来春初舞台でタカラジェンヌに". www.news-postseven.com (in Japanese). 1 June 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
16. ^ "東京ラブストーリー". The Television (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
17. ^ "カルテットの出演者・キャスト一覧". The Television (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
18. ^ "anone". The Television (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
19. ^ "大豆田とわ子と三人の元夫". The Television (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
20. ^ "初恋の悪魔". The Television (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
21. ^ "花束みたいな恋をした". eiga.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
22. ^ "怪物". eiga.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
23. ^ "クレイジークルーズ". eiga.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
24. ^ "ファーストキス 1ST KISS". eiga.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 February 2025.
25. ^ "片思い世界". eiga.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 4 March 2025.

## External links

[edit]

* Yuji Sakamoto at IMDb
* Yuji Sakamoto at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)

* v
* t
* e

Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay

1949–2000|

* Alfred L. Werker, Eugene Ling & Virginia Shaler (1949)
* Terence Rattigan (1951)
* Piero Tellini (1952)
* Pier Paolo Pasolini, Massimo Franciosa & Pasquale Festa Campanile (1958)
* Dumitru Carabat, Henri Colpi & Yves Jamiaque (1963)
* Ray Rigby / Pierre Schoendoerffer (1965)
* Alain Jessua / Elio Petri (1967)
* Steven Spielberg, Hal Barwood & Matthew Robbins (1974)
* Furio Scarpelli, Agenore Incrocci & Ettore Scola (1980)
* István Szabó (1981)
* Jerzy Skolimowski (1982)
* Thanassis Valtinos, Theo Angelopoulos & Tonino Guerra (1984)
* Michel Blanc (1994)
* Jacques Audiard & France Alain Le Henry (1996)
* James Schamus (1997)
* Hal Hartley (1998)
* Yuri Arabov (1999)
* James Flamberg & John C. Richards (2000)

2001–present|

* Danis Tanović (2001)
* Paul Laverty (2002)
* Denys Arcand (2003)
* Agnès Jaoui & Jean-Pierre Bacri (2004)
* Guillermo Arriaga (2005)
* Pedro Almodóvar (2006)
* Fatih Akin (2007)
* Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (2008)
* Mei Feng (2009)
* Lee Chang-dong (2010)
* Joseph Cedar (2011)
* Cristian Mungiu & Tatiana Niculescu Bran (2012)
* Jia Zhangke (2013)
* Andrey Zvyagintsev & Oleg Negin (2014)
* Michel Franco (2015)
* Asghar Farhadi (2016)
* Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou / Lynne Ramsay (2017)
* Jafar Panahi & Nader Saeivar / Alice Rohrwacher (2018)
* Céline Sciamma (2019)
* Ryusuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe (2021)
* Tarik Saleh (2022)
* Yuji Sakamoto (2023)
* Coralie Fargeat (2024)
* Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (2025)

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Japan
* Korea

Academics|

* CiNii

Artists|

* MusicBrainz

Other|

* IdRef
* Yale LUX

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