The same year, Sakamoto released his own solo album, The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto, experimenting with a similar fusion between electronic music and traditional Japanese music in early 1978. Hosono and Sakamoto also worked together alongside Hideki Matsutake in early 1978 for Hosono's experimental 'electro-exotica' fusion album Cochin Moon, which fused electronic music with Indian music, including an early 'synth raga' song 'Hum Ghar Sajan'. The three worked together again for the 1978 album Pacific, which included an early version of the song 'Cosmic Surfin'. The band was named 'Harry Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band' as a satire of Japan's obsession with black magic at the time, and in late 1977 they began recording Paraiso, which was released in 1978. Hosono invited both to work on his exotica-flavoured album Paraiso, which included electronic songs produced using various electronic equipment. Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Yukihiro Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band.

Much of the methods and techniques developed by both Tomita and Matsutake during the early 1970s would later be employed by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Also around the same time, the band's future 'fourth member' Hideki Matsutake was the assistant for the internationally successful electronic musician Isao Tomita. Following the break-up of his band Happy End in 1972, Hosono became involved in the recording of several early electronic rock records, including Yōsui Inoue's folk pop rock album Kōri no Sekai (1973) and Osamu Kitajima's progressive psychedelic rock album Benzaiten (1974), both of which utilized synthesizers, electric guitars, electric bass, and in the latter, electronic drums, and rhythm machines. The group leader Haruomi Hosono had been using an Ace Tone rhythm machine since early in his career in the early 1970s. Prior to the group's formation, Sakamoto had been experimenting with electronic music equipment at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, which he entered in 1970, including synthesizers such as the Buchla, Moog, and ARP. History 1976–1978: early years and formation They briefly reunited several times in subsequent decades before Takahashi and Sakamoto's deaths in 2023. The group released several albums before pausing their activity in 1984. For their early recordings and performances, the band was often accompanied by programmer Hideki Matsutake. They released the surprise global hit ' Computer Game' in 1978, reaching the UK Top 20 and selling 400,000 copies in the U.S. The three members were veterans of the music industry before coming together as YMO, and were inspired by eclectic sources, including the electronic music of Isao Tomita and Kraftwerk, Japanese traditional music, arcade games, funk music, and the disco productions of Giorgio Moroder. They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres, including synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno, while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career. They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and digital recording technology, and effectively anticipated the ' electropop boom' of the 1980s. The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music. Yellow Magic Orchestra (abbreviated to YMO) was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals, occasional keyboards) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals).

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