He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees (2002) from Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, before becoming Assistant Professor at the university. After his 7-year career as an Assistant Professor there, Sakai moved to Division of Chemical Engineering of Osaka University as an Associate professor. His research group works in the area of biochemical engineering with projects that address hydrogel-based tissue engineering and bioproduction using immobilized enzymes.