Childhood in Kawasaki and Kasama

Kyu Sakamoto with his mother, Iku, in 1951

Sakamoto was born on 10 December 1941, in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, to Hiroshi Sakamoto, a cargo tender officer, and his second wife, Iku. He was the youngest of his father's nine children, which is why he was nicknamed Kyū-chan (九ちゃん, Kyū-chan), meaning "lil nine". Kyū is also an alternative reading of the kanji of his given name, Hisashi (九).

In the summer of 1944, during the air raids over the greater Tokyo area, Kyu's mother took her three children to live with their maternal grandparents in rural Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture. They moved back to Kawasaki in 1949. Their father's company had been closed by the American occupation forces and he opened a restaurant.^[2]

Teenage life

In 1956, Kyu's parents divorced. His mother was given custody over her three minor children including Kyu, and they adopted the mother's maiden name, Ōshima. His older half-siblings kept their father's surname, Sakamoto. Kyu started playing guitar in high school, but he soon began singing.

JVC and Toshiba Records

In May 1958, when Sakamoto was 16 years old, he joined the Japanese pop-band The Drifters that had been formed three years earlier. Sakamoto was unhappy about his position in the band as second vocalist, and this often led to fights with the other members. His big breakthrough as a band member came 26 August 1958, when he sang at the annual music festival Western Carnival at the Nichigeki Hall. After a quarrel that ended in a fight with two of the other members, Sakamoto left the band in November 1958.

For a short period of time, Sakamoto returned to his studies and focused on entering university. By December 1958, he joined his classmate's Hisahiko Iida's band called Danny Iida and Paradise King. He replaced Hiroshi Mizuhara as singer. Sakamoto's career began to rise to expectations, where he ended his studies and left school. In June 1959, the band got a record deal at the JVC record company. The Paradise King and Sakamoto released their song "Kanashiki Rokujissai" in August 1960, which became a great hit. In the time after they released a number of songs that became very popular. This led to Sakamoto obtaining a record deal at the Toshiba Records company and left the Paradise King aiming at a solo career.^[3]

Debut album and international success (1961–1964)

Sakamoto (far left) being interviewed live on the Swedish talk show Hylands hörna in October 1964

Sakamoto's solo career was inaugurated with the love song "Ue o Muite Arukō" written by Rokusuke Ei and Hachidai Nakamura. The song was first heard on the NHK entertainment program Yume de Aimashō on 16 August 1961. It became a smash hit and was released on red vinyl on October 15. It remained the highest selling record until January 1962, three months after its release.

His international breakthrough came in 1963 during a visit to Japan by Louis Benjamin, an executive of British record company Pye Records. Hearing the song several times, Benjamin decided to bring it back to England. Due to concerns that the title would be too hard for English-speakers to pronounce or remember, the song was renamed "Sukiyaki", after the Japanese cooked beef dish familiar to the English. The new title was intended to sound both catchy and distinctive in Japanese, but other than the language, it had no actual connection to the song.

Initially, Pye Records released an instrumental version of the song recorded by Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen. After that became a hit in England, His Master's Voice (HMV) released the original, which also sold well, reaching sixth place in HMV's most sold records. In 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the US with the alternate title, eventually selling over one million copies,^[4] and remaining number one on the Billboard Hot 100 number one single for three weeks in June 1963.

After the international success of "Ue o Muite Arukō", Sakamoto went on a world tour that lasted from summer of 1963 to the beginning of 1964. Among the countries he visited were the United States (including Hawaii), Germany, and Sweden. During his time in the U.S., he was invited to appear in several television shows. On 13 August 1963, he landed at Los Angeles International Airport and that evening, was a guest of television program The Steve Allen Show.^[5] Sakamoto was also expected to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, but his appearance was canceled owing to a scheduling conflict with the production of his upcoming movie, Kyu-chan Katana o Nuite.^[6]

Sakamoto had only one other song reach the U.S. charts, "China Nights (Shina no Yoru)" (Capitol 5016), which peaked at number 58 in 1963. His only American album, Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits (Capitol 10349), peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart (now known as the Billboard 200) in 1963 and remained on the Pop Albums chart for 17 weeks.

He received his sole foreign Gold Record of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) by Capitol Records on 15 May 1964 in Hotel Okura, Tokyo.

Later appearances

During the 1964 Summer Olympics, he was featured on the Swedish TV-program Hylands hörna broadcast live from Tokyo.^[7]

In 1968, Sakamoto and Hachidai Nakamura participated in the international singing contest Festival Internacional da Canção in Rio de Janeiro with the song "Sayonara, Sayonara" and finished in 7th place.^[8]