Dr. Sakoi currently serves as Vice-Minister for Health and Chief Medical and Global Health Officer at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Government of Japan. Dr. Sakoi graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine in 1989. He has served as a surgical clinician at institutions including the University of Tokyo Hospital and Toranomon Hospital. After joining the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1992, he visited the U.S. to study at the Harvard School of Public Health and received the Master of Public Health in 1997. Various roles he has held at the ministry since 2005 include Director, Health Risk Management Office, Minister’s Secretariat; Planning Director, Health Insurance Bureau; Director, Division of the Health for the Elderly; Director, Medical Care Planning Division; Director, Medical Economics Division; Deputy Director-General of the ministry, Minister’s Secretariat; and Director General of the Health Policy Bureau. He also has an experience working at the Hiroshima Prefectural Government as Director General of Health and Welfare Department (2006-2009). He was appointed Director General, Office for COVID-19 and Other Emerging Infectious Disease Control Cabinet Secretariat in October 2021 and the current position in July 2023.