Masaaki Sakai

Masaaki Sakai (堺 正章, Sakai Masaaki^?, born August 6, 1946 as Masaaki Kurihara (栗原 正章, Kurihara Masaaki^?)) is a popular Japanese performer from Tokyo. He is best known to English-speaking audiences as the title star of the TV show Monkey.

Born the son of Shunji Sakai, a famous comedian in Japan, Sakai initially came to fame by fronting the group sounds band The Spiders. This group, formed in 1962, was popular throughout the 1960s; they spawned several hit songs as well as thirteen situation comedy films featuring their music.

He took the title role of Son Goku (literally meaning "Descendent Aware of Vacuity", but the Chinese character for "descendent" is a punning reference to a similar character meaning "Monkey") in the 1970s Japanese TV program Saiyūki (lit. "Journey to the West"). This gained him fame in many English-speaking countries in the early 1980s when it was dubbed by the BBC and retitled Monkey. Due to his fame playing the mythical character Songoku, 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.

In 1999, he formed the band Sans Filtre with two former Spiders, Hiroshi Kamayatsu and Takayuki Inoue. They released their first album Yei Yei in 2000.

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