He was best known outside Japan for his international hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō" (known as "Sukiyaki" in English-speaking markets), which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies.

The youngest of his father's nine children, he was nicknamed Kyū-chan (九ちゃん), meaning "Lil Nine", with Kyū also being an alternative reading of the kanji of his given name, Hisashi (九).

In the summer of 1944, during the air raids over the greater Tokyo area, Kyu's mother took her three children to live with their maternal grandparents in rural Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture.

His big breakthrough as a band member came 26 August 1958, when he sang at the annual music festival Western Carnival at the Nichigeki Hall.

[3] Sakamoto's solo career was inaugurated with the song "Ue o Muite Arukō" written by Rokusuke Ei and Hachidai Nakamura.

Due to concerns that the title would be too hard for English-speakers to pronounce or remember, the song was renamed "Sukiyaki", after the Japanese cooked beef dish familiar to the English.

After the international success of "Ue o Muite Arukō", Sakamoto went on a world tour that lasted from summer of 1963 to the beginning of 1964.

On 13 August 1963, he landed at Los Angeles International Airport and that evening, was a guest of television program The Steve Allen Show.

On August 12, 1985, Sakamoto was aboard Japan Air Lines Flight 123 (departing from Tokyo), heading to Osaka for an event.

The plane suffered a severe structural failure and decompression before crashing into two ridges of Mount Takamagahara in Ueno, Gunma, a disaster that remains the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history with 520 people killed, including Sakamoto.

"Ue o Muite Arukō" has been covered multiple times over the years, beginning with the instrumental by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.

In 1989, Selena's self-titled album contained a Spanish translation of the Taste of Honey cover which was released as a single in 1990.

), Raphael Saadiq (1995's "Ask of You", another to make the Hot 100), Mary J. Blige (1997's "Everything") and Will Smith (1999's "So Fresh", featuring Slick Rick).