In 2009, in the drama "The Quiz Show 2" with You Yokoyama, he portrayed an amnesic host of a live TV quiz program. He portrayed , a 28-year-old life insurance salesman who is caught up in a building hijack. Sakurai appeared in the docudrama special on January 16, 2010. He portrayed , a real photo reporter who worked for the Kobe Shimbun and helped keep the newspaper running without interruption despite the damage inflicted from the Kobe earthquake.