Ryuichi Sakamoto

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Ryuichi Sakamoto

Born in 1952, Sakamoto released his debut solo album Thousand Knives in 1978. In the same year, he formed the pioneering electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Since YMO disbanded in 1983, he has continued to be active in and beyond the realm of media in the ﬁelds of music, movies, publishing, advertising and others.

In 1984, he won a British Academy Film Award among other accolades for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, which he starred in and composed the score for. He later won an Academy Award and a Grammy among other honors for his score to the 1987 ﬁlm The Last Emperor. He has since changed his career base to the West and earned an international reputation for pursuing innovative sounds.

In Japan, Sakamoto advocated the revitalization of the nation’s music industry and established the commons music community in 2006 to provide common ground for music-related activities transcending genres and categories.

Since the release of his opera LIFE in 1999, Sakamoto has often made reference to environmental and peace issues in his works. In 2000, he contributed to the efforts of Jubilee 2000 – an international movement calling for the cancellation of debts weighing on the world’s poorest countries by the year 2000 with supporters including Bono from rock band U2 and Bob Geldof. In 2001, he founded artists’ power, an artists’ organization advocating the use of renewable energy. He joined fellow members Takeshi Kobayashi and Kazutoshi Sakurai in founding the NGO ap bank in 2003. In 2006, he opposed the operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and launched the website stop-rokkasho.org. In July of 2007, he established more trees, a global initiative to support the planting of trees, and engaged in a variety of activities including efforts to raise awareness of the need to combat global warming, conserve forests and plant trees.

Following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Sakamoto launched projects to support disaster victims, including kizunaworld.org (http://kizunaworld.org/), LIFE311 – by more trees (http://life311. more-trees.org/) and the Children’s Music Revival Fund – School Music Revival (http://www. schoolmusicrevival.org/), which continue their activities today. He organized the No Nukes 2012 concert held on July 7 and 8, 2012, to call for a nuclear phase-out, thereby expressing his intention to keep pursuing the ideal of a world without nuclear power and nuclear weapons through the medium of music. His major albums include B-2 UNIT, Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia, BEAUTY, LIFE, out of noise and THREE. His books include Ongaku wa jiyu ni suru (lit. “Music sets you free”). He also co- authored Jomon seichi junrei (lit. “A pilgrimage to the home of Jomon culture”), Imadakara yomitai hon – 3/11 go no Nihon (lit. “Books to read in post-3/11 Japan” and NO NUKES 2012 bokura no mirai gaido bukku (lit. “NO NUKES 2012 guidebook to our future”).

In 2002, he received the Order of the Cavaleiro Admissão from the government of Brazil for his contribution to ties of friendship between Japan and Brazil. At the ECHO Festival held in conjunction with World Environment Day in 2009, he was awarded the UN Environment Programme’s Echo Award for his eco-friendly initiatives in music. In the same year, he was named an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France in recognition of his contribution to cultural diversity in his role as an artist. In 2010, he received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize of popular entertainment field from the Agency for Cultural Affair for his outstanding achievements in artistic fields. These accolades are testimony to the strong worldwide respect people have for his activities as a whole.

Sakamoto also enjoys the confidence of people in the arts world for his flexible approach to music and arts and for his extensive knowledge, which encompasses history, ideology and philosophy. He was appointed as a general adviser to the 2012 Tokyo Art Meeting (III): Art and Music – Search for New ‘Synesthesia’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and is also artistic director for a 2013 program celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media.

He has been based in New York since 1990.