At the age of 19, Sakamoto won the 1st Fuji TV Young Scenario Award. 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.
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 2017, Sakamoto won the Best Screenwriter award at the 92nd for his work on the drama
Quartet. 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==