is a Japanese musician. He composes and writes almost all of the songs for his band Mr. Children, in addition to writing lyrics and singing for his solo project group Bank Band. In 2006, Sakurai ranked No. 8 in HMV's "Top 30 Best Japanese Singers of All Time" and in 2007 was voted No. 4 as the "ideal father image" by Oricon. Also, in 2009, he was chosen as one of the Young Global Leaders in World Economic Forum. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded AP Bank, where he personally provided 1 million dollars of seed money to launch and fund the nonprofit lending group which finances environmentally friendly projects. Musical career Kazutoshi Sakurai is a respected figure in the Japanese music industry. Thanks to their quality, his lyrics are often analyzed in music magazines. The topics of his lyrics include: social issues ('So Let's Get Truth'), science/technology ("Everything is made from a dream"), depression ("Surrender"), love (), and war (). He is capable of playing various instruments, including the guitar, piano and harmonica. For most of Sakurai's musical career, he has been part of Mr. Children, but has done other work including in 1995 where he sang and produced the charity single with Keisuke Kuwata (from Southern All Stars) for the Act Against AIDS campaign, in addition to being a disc jockey for Music Gambo on FM802. Sakurai has two side project bands: Acid Test (a John Lennon tribute band which is no longer active) and Bank Band. Along with fellow band member Kenichi Tahara from Mr. Children, they created the short live group, Acid Test, for the concert "Dream Power John Lennon Super live broadcasting" on October 9, 2001. The live was part of Yoko Ono's "Dream Power and Educational" platform where artists came together to hold a charity concert to raise money for school construction funds for children in Africa and Asia. The John Lennon song covered by Acid Test, "Mother", was later recorded and released on the album Happy Birthday John!: A Tribute to John Lennon, which was released on September 30, 2005. Sakurai was temporarily hospitalized on July 21, 2002, after a blockage in his cerebellum was detected. He spent 4 months recovering from the surgery, which required all his music activities, including Mr. Children's "The Wonderful World" tour to be canceled. However, he returned to the stage on December 21, 2002, for a one night