# Yuji Sakamoto

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

## Early life

Yūji Sakamoto was born on 12 May 1967 in Osaka.

## Career

At the age of 19, Sakamoto won the 1st Fuji TV Young Scenario Award. At the age of 23, he wrote the screenplay for Tokyo Love Story. 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. 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. 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. Monster premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where Sakamoto won the Best Screenplay award.
In April 2016, he was appointed as a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts's Graduate School of Film and New Media.
In April 2023, Sakamoto was awarded a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon and in May 2023, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay for Monster.
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.

## Personal life

In 1998, he married actress Yoko Moriguchi.

## Filmography
### Television

| Year | Title | Network | Notes |
| 1989 | Dōkyūsei | Fuji TV | |
| 1990 | Nippon-ichi no Kattobi Otoko | Fuji TV | |
| 1991 | Tokyo Love Story | Fuji TV | |
| 1992 | Hatachi no Yakusoku | Fuji TV | |
| 1996 | Tsubasa o Kudasai! | Fuji TV | |
| 2002 | Remote | NTV | |
| 2003 | Anata no Tonari ni Dare ka Iru | Fuji TV | |
| 2004 | Itoshi Kimi e | Fuji TV | |
| 2004 | Last Christmas | Fuji TV | |
| 2006 | Saiyūki | Fuji TV | |
| 2006 | Top Caster | Fuji TV | |
| 2007 | Our Textbook | Fuji TV | |
| 2008 | Ryokiteki na Kanojo | TBS | |
| 2008 | Taiyo to Umi no Kyoshitsu | Fuji TV | |
| 2010 | Cheisu: Kokuzei sasatsukan | NHK | |
| 2010 | Mother | NTV | |
| 2011 | Soredemo, Ikite Yuku | Fuji TV | |
| 2012 | Makete, Katsu: Sengo o Tsukutta Otoko Shigeru Yoshida | NHK | |
| 2013 | The Best Divorce | Fuji TV | |
| 2013 | Woman | NTV | |
| 2014 | Mosaic Japan | WOWOW | |
| 2014 | Oyaji no Senaka | TBS | Episode: "Wedding Match" |
| 2015 | Mondai no Aru Restaurant | Fuji TV | |
| 2016 | Love That Makes You Cry | Fuji TV | |
| 2017 | Quartet | TBS | |
| 2018 | Anone | NTV | |
| 2021 | Omameda Towako and Her Three Ex-Husbands | KTV | |
| 2022 | Hatsukoi no Akuma | NTV | |

### Film

| Year | Title | Director |
| 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 |
| 2023 | Monster | Hirokazu Kore-eda |
| 2023 | In Love and Deep Water | Yusuke Taki |
| 2025 | First Kiss | Ayuko Tsukahara |
| 2025 | Unreachable | Nobuhiro Doi |