Kyu Sakamoto was a singer and actor from Japan.

His international smash song "Ue o Muite Aruk" (also known as "Sukiyaki" in English-speaking regions), which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies, is what made him most well-known outside of Japan. The song became the first by an Asian music artist to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in June 1963. He also had the first number-one single on the Australian singles chart for a Japanese artist.

Sakamoto perished on August 12, 1985, along with the other 519 passengers and crew on board Japan Air Lines Flight 123, in the greatest single-aircraft catastrophe in aviation history.