[1] Sakamoto began his career as a session musician, producer, and arranger while he was at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in the mid 1970s.

[2][3][4] He went on to produce more solo records, and collaborate with many international artists; David Sylvian, DJ Spooky, Carsten Nicolai, Youssou N'Dour, and Fennesz among them.

Sakamoto composed music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games,[5] and his composition "Energy Flow" (1999) was the first instrumental number-one single in Japan's Oricon charts history.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) marked his debut as both an actor and a film score composer; its main theme was adapted into the single "Forbidden Colours" which became an international hit.

[13] After working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) in 1978.

[15] The group's work has had a lasting influence across genres, ranging from hip hop[15] and techno[17] to acid house[1] and general melodic music.

The album experimented with different styles, such as "Thousand Knives" and "The End of Asia"—in which electronic music was fused with traditional Japanese music—while "Grasshoppers" is a more minimalistic piano song.

[22] According to Dusted Magazine, Sakamoto's use of squelching bounce sounds and mechanical beats was later incorporated in early electro and hip hop music productions, such as "Message II (Survival)" (1982), by Melle Mel and Duke Bootee; "Magic's Wand" (1982), by Whodini and Thomas Dolby; Twilight 22's "Electric Kingdom" (1983); and Kurt Mantronik's The Album (1985).

For several tracks on the album, Sakamoto worked with UK reggae producer Dennis Bovell, incorporating elements of afrobeat and dub music.

[27] Also in 1980, Sakamoto released the single "War Head/Lexington Queen", an experimental synthpop and electro record, and began a long-standing collaboration with David Sylvian, when he co-wrote and performed on the Japan track "Taking Islands in Africa".

In the following year, Sakamoto collaborated with Talking Heads and King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew and Robin Scott for an album titled Left-Handed Dream.

The performance itself debuted at the Joyce Theater, to mixed reviews from Anna Kisselgoff at The New York Times which said of Sakamoto's music, that "The sound often resembles a radio shut on and off.

Jen Monroe of The Baffler called Esperanto, "one of his early forays into sample-based music, which manages to be unremittingly gorgeous, aggressive, angular, and lush.

[38] The Sony Classical release of Discord was sold in a jewel case that was covered by a blue-colored slipcase made of foil, while the CD also contained a data video track.

Sakamoto further explained: The themes of Prayer and Salvation came out of the feelings of sadness and frustration that I expressed in the first two movements, about the fact that people are starving in the world, and we are not able to help them.

[40] Sakamoto's next album, BTTB (1999)—an acronym for "Back to the Basics" is comprised a series of original pieces on solo piano influenced by Debussy and Satie and includes "Energy Flow" (a major hit in Japan) and an arrangement of the Yellow Magic Orchestra classic "Tong Poo".

[41][42] Sakamoto's long-awaited "opera" LIFE [ja] was released in 1999, with visual direction by Shiro Takatani, artistic director of Dumb Type.

[43] This ambitious multi-genre multi-media project featured contributions from Pina Bausch, Bernardo Bertolucci, Josep Carreras, the Dalai Lama, and Salman Rushdie.

The trio would release the single "Zero Landmine", which also featured David Sylvian, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Cyndi Lauper, and Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, the other two founding members of Yellow Magic Orchestra.

[53] Throughout the latter part of the 2000s, Sakamoto collaborated on several projects with visual artist Shiro Takatani, including the installations LIFE – fluid, invisible, inaudible... (2007–2013), commissioned by YCAM, Yamaguchi, collapsed and silence spins at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2012 and 2013 Sharjah Biennial (U.A.E.

[55] On April 14, 2013, he also participated in a performance of film and music by video pioneer Nam June Paik, selected by musicians and composers who knew him well: himself, Stephen Vitiello, and Steina Vasulka.

He calls Tarkovsky and French director Robert Bresson his favorites, claiming their books – Notes on the Cinematographer and Sculpting in Time, respectively – as "[his] bible.

This "wordless opera", featuring dancer and actor Min Tanaka and shô player Mayumi Miyata was inspired by the first tale from Soseki Natsume's collection of short stories Ten Nights of Dreams.

[46] In 2022 he took part in the creation of Dumb Type's new installation 2022 as a new member of the Japanese collective, for the Japan Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

Frame said that he was impressed by the work of YMO and the Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence soundtrack, explaining: "That's where you realise that the atmosphere around his compositions is actually in the writing – it's got nothing to do with synthesisers."

[75] Other films scored by Sakamoto include Pedro Almodóvar's High Heels (1991); Bertolucci's The Little Buddha (1993);[76] Oliver Stone's Wild Palms (1993);[77] John Maybury's Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998); Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes (1998) and Femme Fatale (2002); Oshima's Gohatto (1999); Jun Ichikawa's (director of the Mitsui ReHouse commercial from 1997 to 1999 starring Chizuru Ikewaki and Mao Inoue) Tony Takitani (2005);,[76] Hwang Dong-hyuk's, The Fortress (2017); and Andrew Levitas's Minamata (2020) starring Johnny Depp, Minami, and Bill Nighy.

In particular, variations of "Chinsagu No Hana" (from Beauty) and "Bibo No Aozora" (from 1996) provide the poignant closing pieces for Sue Brooks's Japanese Story (2003) and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel (2006), respectively.

[81] Sakamoto also acted in several films: perhaps his most notable performance was as the conflicted Captain Yonoi in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, alongside Takeshi Kitano and British rock singer David Bowie.

[32] The couple divorced in 1982, when Sakamoto married Japanese pianist and singer Akiko Yano, following several musical collaborations with her including touring work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra.

[102] Sakamoto won the Golden Pine Award (Lifetime Achievement) at the 2013 International Samobor Film Music Festival, along with Clint Eastwood and Gerald Fried.