POP MUSIC : The International Sounds of Ryuichi Sakamoto

Seated in a Hollywood hotel suite, Ryuichi Sakamoto is stylishly attired in black and surrounded by such wonders of modern technology as a portable electronic keyboard and a pocket-size compact-disc player--to the Western eye, at least, the very embodiment of contemporary Japanese culture.

It’s an image affirmed by much of Sakamoto’s history. First as a member of the techno-rock trio Yellow Magic Orchestra and more recently as a solo artist, he has been at the forefront of Japanese pop music for more than a decade.

And with the score for the movie “The Last Emperor”--which uses music composed by Sakamoto, Talking Heads leader David Byrne and Chinese musician Cong Su--up for an Academy Award, he is up there with New Age star Kitaro as the most internationally famous Japanese musician.

As an actor as well, he is identified as a particularly Japanese figure: In 1983’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” (for which he also composed and performed the score) he co-starred with David Bowie and Tom Conti as a Japanese war camp commander, and in “Emperor” he has a significant role as a stiff Japanese military official.

But Sakamoto, 36, bristles at the suggestion that there is something definitively Japanese about him and his work.

“I personally don’t care what nationality I am,” he said, with translation help from his manager. “Even if I was born in Brazil, there might be some difference in the music, but I’d be doing much the same thing. I don’t care about nationality.”

With a sheepish laugh, he added, “If I was born in Brazil, maybe a little more samba.”

That he might somehow be associated with the characters he has played on film is particularly disturbing to him.

“I don’t understand why people keep on asking me to play that kind of character,” he said quietly, but firmly. “I hate nationalism and patriotism. It’s hard for me to pretend I’m a . . . heavy fascist or nationalist.”

A look at Sakamoto’s musical history confirms his stated intent to be an internationalist. Yellow Magic Orchestra, he said, was inspired by the German group Kraftwerk, and Sakamoto’s vast solo recording output reflects eclectic tastes ranging from Western jazz to classical and rock forms to Japanese melodies.

Over the last couple of years he has worked extensively with the likes of English singer/composers Virginia Astley and David Sylvian.

And Sakamoto’s own latest album, “Neo Geo,” is a veritable textbook of intercultural exchange. Produced by New Yorker Bill Laswell, the record features contributions from funk bassist Bootsy Collins, jazz/rock drummer Tony Williams and rocker Iggy Pop, as well as several Japanese and Okinawan musicians and singers.

Isn’t it difficult to work with people from such a wide array of backgrounds?

“The difference between musicians is more the difference between personalities, personal characters than between their country or nationality,” he said.

Actually, Sakamoto is not uncomfortable merely with the image presented by his two acting roles, but with the very craft of acting.

“I hate the acting,” he said. “A profession like actor is supposed to be done by someone who loves to express himself . . . but I’m not interested in that.”

Why did he take these two very demanding roles then?

“I love those directors,” he said of “Emperor’s” Bernardo Bertolucci and “Mr. Lawrence’s” Nagisa Oshima. “So my (desire) to work with them won over my hatred of acting. It overwhelmed.”

He further confessed that despite his celebrity in Japan (where he is also in demand as a fashion model), he is uncomfortable in any public situation.

“Since I was a kid I didn’t like . . . being exposed in public,” he said. “The simplest example to explain how bad I am at communicating with people is that even with music, even in the studio where everything should be communication between professionals, I still have a hard time dealing with those people, with the engineers and things. That’s the reason I use computers so much, because I don’t have to talk. I just press the keyboard and that’s it.”