Ryuichi Sakamoto’s playlist for his favorite restaurant

March 27, 2025

Ryuichi Sakamoto died on March 28, 2023 after enduring throat cancer and then colon cancer. This is our second anniversary post on his artistry. I(Chris) has been a longtime fan of his music and wrote a tribute post about his passing. Last year, we posted on his personal playlist for his own funeral here. This year we are in Tokyo and will visit the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo that is hosting an exhibition of his works.

I read about this playlist several years ago in New York Times – Annoyed by Restaurant Playlists, a Master Musician Made His Own – published on July 23, 2018. The restaurant was Kajitsu, which serves Japanese vegan Shojin 精進 dishes in Manhattan. The fine dining restaurant earned one Michelin star, but closed in September 2022 (after COVID19).

The New York Times writer was rather excited about Mr. Sakamoto’s idea of thoughtful restaurant background music (BGM). Mr. Sakamoto noted that it was not a matter of simply choosing the music he liked, but it had to take into account of the atmosphere, color and decoration of the restaurant; not too loud, not too bright, and not too “jazzy.”

Mr. Sakamoto’s dining playlist consists of 47 items and the total playtime is 3 hours 19 minutes. Spotify is the best way to enjoy the entire playlist. A subscription is required to listen to the full length of each tune, but you can play a sample without a subscription.

None of the songs on this BGM playlist include any of his own music. To me, it is both a playlist for listening as well as a starting place for discovering new music. However, it is interesting to see that he had included pieces by some of my favorite artists. I have links to a few below as they are on Youtube.

Promenade sentimentale by Vladimir Cosma is written for the film – “Diva”