Matsue, Shimane
Born in Yamanashi Prefecture, Sano lived in Tokyo and Matsue, Shimane as a child, before returning to Tokyo to enter art school. He joined several theatrical troupes, including Jurō Kara's Jōkyō Gekijō. He had his first starring role in a film in Kaizō Hayashi's "To Sleep so as to Dream" in 1986, but gained fame for playing the character Fuyuhiko in the television drama "Zutto Anata ga Suki datta" in 1992. He directed his first film, "Karaoke", in 1999.