Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto was one of those artists who never really fit into a single box. He was a composer, a pianist, an electronic music pioneer, a film actor, and also a public intellectual who cared deeply about the world around him. Born in Tokyo in 1952, he grew up surrounded by books, ideas, and music. His father worked in publishing and was connected to major Japanese writers, so Sakamoto was exposed early on to literature, philosophy, and political thinking. That background mattered a lot, because even when he was making pop music or film scores, there was always something thoughtful and reflective underneath.

 
Musically, he was classically trained but never trapped by it. He studied piano, composition, and ethnomusicology, which gave him a curiosity about sounds from different cultures and traditions. He loved Western composers like Bach, Debussy, and Ravel, but he was just as interested in experimental figures like John Cage. This mix explains why his music doesn’t feel like a simple East-meets-West experiment. It sounds more like someone who genuinely spoke multiple musical languages and moved between them naturally. 

 
In the late 1970s, he co-founded Yellow Magic Orchestra, which is often remembered today as quirky synth-pop, but at the time it was way more radical than that label suggests. YMO used computers and synthesizers before most pop musicians even knew what to do with them. They sampled video games, commercials, and cultural clichés, and they played with the idea of how Japan was seen as “high-tech” and “exotic” by the rest of the world. Sakamoto brought a serious composer’s mindset into the group, hiding complex harmonies and structures inside music that sounded fun and accessible on the surface. 

 
Film became another major outlet for him, and it wasn’t just about writing background music. In "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence", he both acted and composed, playing a conflicted Japanese officer whose emotional repression mirrored the film’s themes of power, desire, and cultural misunderstanding. His music often worked the same way his acting did: restrained, tense, and quietly emotional. It made you feel things without telling you how to feel. 

 
Winning an Oscar for "The Last Emperor" in 1987 turned him into a global name, but he never really leaned into Hollywood stardom. Instead of chasing big-budget prestige projects, he kept moving between film scores and experimental solo work. That decision kept his music from becoming safe or predictable. Even at the height of his fame, he was still curious, still willing to take risks, still interested in silence as much as sound. 

 
Later in life, especially after he was diagnosed with cancer, his music changed in a noticeable way. It became slower, more fragile, and more spacious. Silence wasn’t just something between notes anymore; it became part of the music itself. Albums like 'Async' feel less like traditional compositions and more like personal documents, as if he was capturing moments before they slipped away. Broken pianos, environmental sounds, and unfinished phrases became central to his style. 

 
His environmental and political activism was deeply tied to this approach. After the Fukushima disaster, he became very outspoken against nuclear power and more committed to environmental causes. He started recording natural sounds like wind, water, and melting ice, treating them as musical material. For him, music wasn’t separate from the world’s problems. It was a way of listening carefully, of paying attention, and of showing respect for what’s fragile and temporary. 

 
Today, a lot of people discover Sakamoto’s music during quiet moments in their lives. It’s the kind of music that works late at night, during travel, or in times of reflection or loss. His influence can be heard in modern film scores, ambient music, and experimental electronic work, especially among artists who value space, texture, and restraint. More than anything, he’s remembered as someone who made technology feel human, silence feel meaningful, and music feel like a way of being present in the world.