Yasuhiro Sonoda

Yasuhiro Sonoda (園田 康博, Sonoda Yasuhiro, born June 9, 1967) is a Japanese politician serving in the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Democratic Party of Japan. A native of Amakusa District, Kumamoto, he attended Nihon University as undergraduate and graduate students and Keio University as a research student. He was elected for the first time in 2003 after unsuccessful runs in 1998 and 2000.

Sonoda gained international attention when, during a press conference, he drank a glass of water sourced from puddles beneath the reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which had been contaminated with radioactivity. This act was intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of the decontamination procedures that had been put in place at the facility.