Ryuichi Sakamoto is battling stage four cancer, the musician has revealed in a piece published by the Japanese literary magazine Shincho this week.
The Japanese composer, who rose to prominence in the late ’70s as a solo artist and as one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021, having previously been diagnosed with throat cancer seven years earlier. In the piece for Shincho, which marks the first time Sakamoto has publicly spoken about his cancer prognosis since first revealing he had rectal cancer, he revealed he underwent surgery last October and December to remove cancer that had spread to both lungs. Stage four usually indicates that the cancer has spread to other parts of the patient’s body and their prognosis is poor.
The article, titled Living With Cancer, is the first in a series of essays titled How Many More Times Will I See the Full Moon? In the series, he intends to discuss the later part of his musical career, and explore his views on life and death. Speaking about the run of articles, he said: "Since I have made it this far in life, I hope to be able to make music until my last moment, like Bach and Debussy whom I adore."
