Kyu Sakamoto

Kyu Sakamoto 1980

Kyu Sakamoto (坂本九 Sakamoto Kyū), born Hisashi Oshima (大島九, Ōshima Hisashi, November 10 1941 - August 12 1985) was a popular Japanese singer and actor.

He was born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture, the youngest among 9 siblings. His most popular song, Ue o muite arukō ("Looking up while walking") known as Sukiyaki in the West, was a hit in Japan and topped the Billboard pop charts in the United States in 1963 - the first and only song to date to do so sung entirely in Japanese. The song text is a tragic story, which many westerners are unaware of. The song was translated into English by the female R&B duo A Taste of Honey in 1981; the English version, which told the story of a love gone wrong, was almost as big a hit as the original, reaching #3 on the Hot 100, and returned to the Top 10 in 1994 by the R&B vocal group 4 P.M. Sakamoto, however, had only one other song reach the U.S. charts, "China Nights (Shina no Yoru)," which peaked at #58 in 1963.

One of his best known and most beloved songs was "Ashita ga Aru Sa" ("There's Always Tomorrow"). This was covered by Japanese group Ulfuls in 2001.

In 1985, Sakamoto was killed in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123. Before the aircraft impacted the ground, he was able to write a farewell note to his wife Yukiko Kashiwagi.