Japanese musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto died on March 28, 2023, at 71, from cancer. His management announced the death on April 2.

Sakamoto co-founded Yellow Magic Orchestra with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, a group that helped define Japanese electronic pop in the late 1970s and 1980s.

As a film composer, he won an Oscar for Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor and scored Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and The Revenant, among other films. He also released an extensive solo catalog spanning ambient, piano and electronic experimentation.

Sakamoto had faced health problems since 2014, when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Even during treatment, he continued composing and recording in his home studio.