Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, known for his work in film scores such as “The Last Emperor” and “The Revenant,” died at the age of 71 on March 28, Japanese recording company Avex announced in a statement Sunday. Photo: VCG

Sakamoto formed electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978 with Yukihiro Takahashi (right) and Haruomi Hosono. The band led a techno-pop boom in Japan in the late 1970s. Sakamoto served as the songwriter and composer for many of the band’s hits. Photo: VCG

The team behind war film “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” (from left) actor Jack Thompson, musical composer and actor Sakamoto, star David Bowie and director Nagisa Oshima, pose for photos in Paris in May 1983. Photo: Jacques Langevin/VCG

Sakamoto starred alongside David Bowie in “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” and composed the instrumental for the film. Photo: Screenshot of the film

Sakamoto in Cannes, France, in 1983. Photo: Francois Lochon/VCG

Sakamoto, Scottish-American musician David Byrne and Chinese composer Su Cong (right) win the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the 1987 epic biographical film “The Last Emperor” in Los Angeles in 1988. Photo: John Barr/VCG

Sakamoto performs with a Fairlight CMI Series III sampling synthesizer and a Yamaha DX7 keyboard in this photo from around the 1980s, the period when his career began to take off outside Japan. Photo: Ebet Roberts/VCG

Sakamoto refers to sheet music during a performance from around the 2000s. Photo: C Brandon/VCG

Sakamoto performs at the Rome Auditorium in October 2009. Photo: Domenico Stinellis/VCG

Sakamoto plays a composition for Linda Hoaglund’s 2014 documentary film “The Wound and the Gift” in New York in May 2014. He told the public that he was diagnosed with throat cancer that year. Photo: Robert Nickelsberg/VCG

The Pelanda museum in Rome displays an installation titled “Life, Fluid, Invisible, Inaudible...” by Sakamoto in 2010. The installation also appeared in Beijing in April 2021 during an exhibition titled Ryuichi Sakamoto: Seeing Sound, Hearing Time. Photo: VCG/IC Photo

German director Philip Groning accepts the Special Jury Prize for his film “Die Frau Des Polizisten” from jury member Sakamoto on stage during the 70th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, in July 2013. Photo: Franco Origlia /VCG

Sakamoto attends the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival in Tokyo in November 2017, when he won the 2017 SAMURAI Award. Photo: Jun Sato/VCG