---
name: "Yoshinori Sakai"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/yoshinori-sakai"
fi1m_id: "yoshinori-sakai"
imdb_id: "nm12329344"
tmdb_id: 3163982
wikidata_id: "Q2483356"
roles: []
born: "6 August 1945"
died: "10 September 2014"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-26T15:45:50.476804+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Yoshinori Sakai

## Identity

Yoshinori Sakai

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/yoshinori-sakai
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** yoshinori-sakai
- **IMDb ID:** nm12329344
- **TMDB ID:** 3163982
- **Wikidata ID:** Q2483356
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshinori_Sakai, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2483356, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12329344/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3163982

Actor. Born 6 August 1945 in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Died 10 September 2014.

## Details

- **Born:** 6 August 1945, Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
- **Died:** 10 September 2014
- **Also known as:** 坂井 義則, Sakai Yoshinori
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshinori_Sakai, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2483356, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12329344/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3163982

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Tokyo Olympiad*](https://film.one/film/tokyo-olympiad.md) (88)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Yoshinori Sakai was a Japanese sprinter and later television journalist. Born on 6 August 1945 in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture, he was selected as the final torchbearer at the opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, lighting the cauldron on 10 October. The choice symbolised Japan's post-war recovery, as he had been born on the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Sakai competed for Waseda University and won the Japanese 400 metres title in 1966. At the Asian Games that year in Bangkok he took gold in the 4 × 400 metres relay and silver in the individual 400 metres. He appeared as himself in the documentary film *Tokyo Olympiad* (1965). In 1968 he joined Fuji Television, where he worked as a journalist and sports producer until his death from cerebral haemorrhage in Tokyo on 10 September 2014.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, olympedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Tokyo Olympiad* (1965), Fi1m 88, as Self — [page](https://film.one/film/tokyo-olympiad.md)

## Complete filmography (1)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *grey's* (1982), Actor

## Gallery

- ![Yoshinori Sakai](https://film.one/media/person/3911212/gallery-d5308351fa2e.jpg) Yoshinori Sakai — Unknown (Asahi Shinbun), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Yoshinori_Sakai_1964b.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Yoshinori Sakai at the 1964 Olympics](https://film.one/media/person/3911212/gallery-67cbbb183c22.jpg) Yoshinori Sakai at the 1964 Olympics — Unknown (Asahi Shinbun), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Yoshinori_Sakai_1964c.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/yoshinori-sakai