Yoshitaka Sakurada (桜田 義孝) is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). He formerly served as Minister of State for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in the Fourth Abe Cabinet.

Career

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. His profile on the LDP website: Sakurada is a board member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020) and serves as a political adviser to the Pachinko Chain Stores Association (PCSA). 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.

Positions

Affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi, Sakurada attended a meeting on March 3, 2014, to seek a review of the Kono Statement and voiced his support for the revision. In January 2016, he said that World War II comfort women were "professional prostitutes. That's business." He apologised later in the day. Sakurada is a member of the following right-wing Diet groups: Sakurada gave the following answers to the questionnaire submitted by Mainichi to parliamentarians in 2012:

Remarks

Sakurada is first Minister for Kashiwa and Abiko.