Through his plays, Sakate challenges a plethora of contemporary issues such as social and political issues, censorship, and sexuality. In Epitaph for the Whales (くじらの墓標 Kujira no bohyō, 1993), he presents the issues related to the 1988 whaling ban and the reactions against it. This play is an example of a “dream play”, and is also the start of a series known as “contemporary nō”, in which the play takes place in a dream. The Attic (屋根裏 Yaneura, 2002) is an example of the lives that take place amongst those with antisocial syndromes. He also satirizes Japan’s legal system in response to the bombing of a Korean Airlines plane in Tokyo Trial (トーキョー裁判 Tōkyō saiban, 1988), and explores female sexuality in Come Out (カムアウト Kamu auto, 1989). Social criticism is the focus in The Last of the Okinawa Milk Plant (沖縄ミルクプラントの最后 Okinawa miruku puranto no saigo, 1998) in where he writes about the problems related to the US military in Okinawa in the aftermath World War II. In his newest work, There Was A Cinema Here (ここには映画館があった Koko ni wa eigakan ga atta, 2013), he presents criticism of the lack of nostalgia in society by reminiscing about the times in Japan where movie theaters were the center of entertainment and life. Not only are his plays harsh criticisms of the modern society, they also present questions about the nature of theater itself. Other playwrights at the time, like Ai Nagai, offered a different approach to these issues. They often wrote in a more comical way to satirize societal issues.
