Kraftwerk plays Ryuichi Sakamoto's “Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence” at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan

Kraftwerk played a tribute to the late legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan last weekend.

The iconic German band played a version of 'Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence' during their headlining set at Naeba on Saturday 27 July. “The next composition is for my friend Ryuichi Sakamoto,” they said in introducing the piece. “We are friends forever. Since our first Kraftwerk concert in Tokyo in 1981 and for the No Nukes festival in 2012. Sakamoto wrote new Japanese lyrics for me for 'Radioactivity', which we played at that show.” The cover was followed by performances of 'Geiger Counter' and 'Radioactivity'.

Sakamoto composed “Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence” for the 1983 film of the same name by Nagisa Ōshima, starring David Bowie, Takeshi Kitano and Sakamoto himself. It was Sakamoto's first film score.

Sakamoto died in 2023 at the age of 71 after several battles with cancer. His final work, titled Opus, was released posthumously as a film earlier this year, with the album version due out next month.

Kraftwerk have been touring continuously since 2022, when their 3D live show returned after the pandemic. Since then, they have performed in Australia and New Zealand and had a career-spanning residency in Los Angeles in May. Co-founder Florian Schneider died in 2020 at the age of 73.

Watch a video of the Sakamoto tribute below.