Yasuhiro Sonoda

Japanese politician

Yasuhiro Sonoda (園田康博, Sonoda Yasuhiro, born June 9, 1967) is a former Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Democratic Party of Japan.

Life and career

Education

A native of Amakusa District, Kumamoto, he attended Nihon University as undergraduate and graduate students and Keio University as a research student.^[1]

Political career

Sonoda was elected for the first time in 2003 after unsuccessful runs in 1998 and 2000.^[1]

Sonoda became internationally known for drinking a glass of water, collected from puddles under the reactor buildings at the radioactively polluted Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and then decontaminated, during a press conference in October 2011 after being challenged to do so.^[2]^[3]

Sonoda quit politics in June 2015, following a failed run in the 2014 Japanese general election.^[4]

Post-political life

He served as representative director of ACD, an online shopping subsidiary of All Nippon Airways, from March 2018 to March 2020, when he was transferred to WeSearch, an ACD subsidiary.^[5]

Death hoax

In the wake of the August 2023 discharge of ALPS-decontaminated water of the Fukushima Daiichi, widespread hoaxes on the Chinese internet claimed that Sonoda died of cancer in Palau.^[6] On September 2, 2023, Sonoda was interviewed by Kyodo News via telephone, in which he "once again" apologized to the people of Fukushima – for his actions being made into a rumor.^[7] The Kyodo News was accompanied with neither an interview audio nor any latest photo of Sonoda.

References

^ ^a ^b 政治家情報〜園田康博〜 [Politician information: SONODA Yasuhiro]. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
^ BBC: Japan MP Yasuhiro Sonoda drinks Fukushima water, 1 November 2011
^ Die Welt (German): Politiker trinkt Fukushima-Wasser ("Politician drinking Fukushima-water"), 1 November 2011
^ 園田元副環境相政界を引退へ民主県連が公表／岐阜 [Former Deputy Environment Minister Sonoda to retire from politics announced by Democratic Prefectural Federation at Gifu]. 毎日新聞. June 14, 2015. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
^ 株式会社ACD. 代表取締役の異動に関するお知らせ [Notice Regarding Change of Representative Director].
^ Taiwan Fact-Check Center (September 2023). 【錯誤】網傳「帛琉衛生局宣布：日本前政務次長園田康博喝下核廢水後，2020年因骨髓癌於帛琉死亡」？ [[FALSE] Internet says "Palau Ministry of Health: former Japanese parliamentary secretary dead in 2020 from bone marrow cancer after drinking radioactive wastewater"?].
^ INC, SANKEI DIGITAL (2023-09-02). 中国の「死亡」デマ否定園田氏、福島の人に謝罪 [Sonoda denies China's 'death' hoax, apologizes to people in Fukushima]. 産経ニュース (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-09-02.