Born 1952 in Tokyo.
Made his debut as a solo artist with “Thousand Knives” in 1978, and joined the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) in the same year. He later moved his bases overseas but remained active in various fields centering around music even after the YMO had “spread out” (as the members put it, avoiding the expression “split up”). SAKAMOTO’s score for the movie “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” won a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, and his music for the movie “The Last Emperor” won an Academy Award for Best Original Score, and a Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television. Numerous other movie soundtracks consolidated his international reputation also as a composer. Continuously pursuing innovation in sound, he has been creating a number of installation works such as “LIFE - fluid, invisible, inaudible ...” made in 2007 with TAKATANI Shiro on commission by the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]. Highly concerned also about social issues, he has been involved in the forest conservation/reforestation project ”more trees,” the charity event “NO NUKES” promoting non-nuclear power, the ”School Music Revival” and “Tohoku Youth Orchestra” projects in support of the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and various other activities. In 2014 he was invited to function as guest director at the Sapporo International Art Festival (SIAF). Following scores for the movies “Nagasaki: Memories of My Son” and “The Revenant” in 2015, in 2017 SAKAMOTO released his first original album in eight years, “async,” which was also presented in the form of the “async” installation at WATARI-UM, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2019, he won Best Music at the 21st Taipei Film Awards for the movie “YOUR FACE” directed by TSAI Ming-liang.

Artist, interaction designer, programmer, and DJ.
Launched Rhizomatiks in 2006. Specially-appointed professor at Keio University SFC.
MANABE’s works, which range into a variety of fields, takes a new approach to everyday materials and phenomena. However, his end goal is not simply rich, high-definition realism by recognizing and recombining these familiar elemental building blocks. Rather, his practice is informed by careful observation to discover and elucidate the essential potentialities inherent to the human body, data, programming, computers, and other phenomena, thus probing the interrelationships and boundaries delineating the analog and digital, real and virtual.
A prolific collaborator, he has worked closely with a diverse roster of artists, including SAKAMOTO Ryuichi, Björk, OK Go, Nosaj Thing, Squarepusher, Andrea BATTISTONI, NOMURA Mansai, Perfume and sakanaction. Further engagements include groundbreaking partnerships with the Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics in Manchester, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.
He is the recipient of numerous awards for his multidisciplinary contributions to advertising, design, and art. Notable recognitions include the Ars Electronica Distinction Award, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Titanium Grand Prix, D&AD Black Pencil, and the Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize.