Ryuichi Sakamoto, an eclectic Japanese composer who was an early leader in electronic pop music and became an acclaimed writer of film scores that blended Eastern and Western cultural influences, has died age 71.
Sakamoto founded the Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978 with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, inspired by the German electronica group Kraftwerk, and it soon emerged as Japan’s top-selling band.
