Masaaki Sakai

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 Songoku Monkey in the 1970s Japanese TV program Saiyūki This gained him fame in many Englishspeaking 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 Sakai is known in Japan as a car enthusiast and regularly took part in the annual Mille Miglia race in Italy with his wife as a codriver He won a similar Japanese road race on October 18 2000 driving a 1947 Cisitalia 202 MM with Inoue Takayuki the guitarist from Sans Filtre as codriver Due to business commitments he gave up racing in 2002 and gave his Alfa Romeo race car to Masahiko Kondō 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 charities His showbusiness nickname is Machaaki