is a popular Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese performer from Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. He is best known to English-speaking audiences as the title star of the TV show Monkey.

Biography

Born the son of Shunji Sakai, a famous comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

 in Japan, Sakai initially came to fame by fronting the group sounds

Group Sounds

Group Sounds is a genre of Japanese rock music. Inspired by The Beatles, Group Sounds became popular in the mid to late 1960s. Group Sounds initiated fusion of Japanese kayōkyoku music and rock music...

 band The Spiders

The Spiders (Japanese band)

The Spiders were a Japanese band in the Group Sounds era, who were one of the top three bands of that genre, a cultural pop music scene unique to Japan....

. This group, formed in 1962, was popular throughout the 1960s; they spawned several hit songs as well as thirteen films. The films were comedies in the same vein as the American situation comedy TV series, The Monkees

The Monkees (TV series)

The Monkees is an American situation comedy that aired on NBC from September 1966 to March 1968. The series follows the adventures of four young men trying to make a name for themselves as rock 'n roll singers. The show introduced a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to series...

. Ironically, due to his later fame playing a mythical character named Songoku (Monkey), Sakai created a dance called "the Monkey" which became a craze in Japan. Sakai went on to a successful solo career after The Spiders disbanded, and continued acting in films and on television.

He took the title role of Songoku (Monkey) in the 1970s Japanese TV program Saiyūki. This gained him fame in many English-speaking countries in the early 1980s when it was dubbed by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and retitled Monkey.

In 1999, he formed the band Sans Filtre

Sans Filtre

Sans Filtre is a Japanese band, formed in the millennium featuring three former members of The Spiders, Masaaki Sakai, Takayuki Inoue, and Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu. The Spiders, formed in 1962, were one of the biggest bands of the Group Sounds era....

 with two former Spiders, Hiroshi Kamayatsu and Takayuki Inoue. They released their first album Yei Yei in 2000.

Sakai is known in Japan as a car enthusiast and regularly took part in the annual Mille Miglia

Mille Miglia

The Mille Miglia was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 ....

 race in Italy with his wife as a co-driver. He won a similar Japanese road race on October 18, 2000 driving a 1947 Cisitalia

Cisitalia

Cisitalia was an Italian sports and racing car constructor. The name "Cisitalia" derives from "Compagnia Industriale Sportive Italia", a business conglomerate founded in Turin in 1946 and controlled by the wealthy industrialist and sportsman Piero Dusio...

 202 MM with Inoue Takayuki (the guitarist from Sans Filtre) as co-driver. Due to business commitments he gave up racing in 2002 and gave his Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...

 race car to Masahiko Kondō

Masahiko Kondo

or Matchy is a Japanese singer, lyricist and actor represented by Johnny & Associates.Kondō is also a semi-professional racing driver and a racing team owner. He founded the racing team Kondo Racing in 2000 which competes in Formula Nippon and the Super GT.- 1980–1987: Early recording career :As a...

 who is also a singer and race enthusiast. He is also a hobby archer.

Sakai has been married and divorced twice, and has two daughters. He is an active supporter of AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 charities. His show-business nickname is "Machaaki".

TV shows

Sakai starred in a series about travelling around Europe as well as the following series:

• Hakkutsu! Aruaru daijiten
• Chuubou desuyo! (English: Here's the Kitchen!)
• Shinano no Columbo (as the lead character in Japan's version of Columbo)
• Saiyuki (English Version: Monkey)

External links

• Monkey - Great Sage equal of Heaven Monkey Magic fansite.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5lRi3ELQR8&feature=related Sakai showing his archery skills in a tv show.