Elaine Lis

TOKYO (Reuters) – Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Oscar-winning Japanese composer best known for scoring The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and other films, has died at the age of 71, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported on Sunday.

Sakamoto was also known for his work with the pioneering electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), of which he co-founded.

Acquainted with the piano as a child, Sakamoto lived for music. As a high school student, he rode in Tokyo commuter cars so crowded that no one could move, amusing himself by counting all sorts of sounds the train made along the way.

Sakamoto, who named the classical musician Claude Debussy as his hero, studied ethnomusicology at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, with a particular interest in the traditional music of Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, as well as Indian and African musical traditions.

“Asian music influenced Debussy a lot, and Debussy influenced me a lot. So music travels the world and comes full circle,” he told WNYC Public Radio in 2010.

Inspired by electronic music, he and fellow studio members Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi formed YMO in 1978. The band’s pioneering use of a vast array of electronic instruments has been a national and international success.

Sakamoto’s first soundtrack was for the 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, in which he also played a POW camp commandant alongside David Bowie. The score went on to win BAFTAs.

His most famous work was the 1987 film The Last Emperor, in which he also starred. The music received an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe.

Sakamoto, who was an anti-nuclear activist and environmentalist, took a break from work for about a year in 2014 to receive treatment for throat cancer. Although he recovered from it after many years of treatment, he announced on his website in January 2021 that he had been diagnosed with rectal cancer.

The story goes on

In December 2022, Sakamoto performed a farewell concert for his fans which was streamed online.

“My strength has really dropped, so a normal concert of about an hour to ninety minutes will be very difficult,” he said in an online post a few days before.

“As a result, I recorded her song after song and edited it together so that it could be presented as a normal concert, which I believe can be enjoyable in a normal way. Please enjoy.”

(Reporting by Elaine Lees; editing by Christopher Cushing, Edwina Gibbs, and Andrew Havens)

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