Japanese composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away on March 28 at the age of 71. He was known for his soundtracks for movies like The Last Emperor and his pioneering electronic music. Sakamoto won an Oscar, Grammy and Bafta award, among others.
Sakamoto learned to play the piano at a young age and lived for music. When he was in high school, he often took the extremely crowded subway in Tokyo. Among the people, Sakamoto entertained himself by counting all the different sounds. His great example was the French composer Claude Debussy.
Sakamoto studied music from different cultures at the university in Tokyo. As a musician he mainly focused on electronic music and in 1978 he founded the band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) together with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. They made groundbreaking electronic music and were successful both at home and abroad.
The first film score Sakamoto made was in 1983 for the film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. He won a BAFTA for this. He also appeared in the film with David Bowie. He made his most famous film music for The Last Emperor, in which he also acted. For that music he received an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe.
Sakamoto was also a climate activist. In 2014, he took a year off from work to be treated for throat cancer. After a few years, the cancer was gone, but in January 2021 he was diagnosed with the disease again.
In December 2022, Sakamoto performed a farewell concert for his fans, which was broadcast online. “My strength has decreased a lot, so a normal one-hour to ninety-minute concert would be very difficult,” he said in an online post.
