Rare footage from 1963 of singer Kyu Sakamoto, known worldwide for his smash hit "Sukiyaki," has been discovered in the vault of broadcaster TBS in Yokohama.

Shot during Sakamoto's August 1963 trip to the United States and narrated by the singer, the footage shows him performing on the TV variety program "The Steve Allen Show," among other scenes, after "Sukiyaki" topped the Billboard charts for three weeks that year.

The roughly 25-minute footage, which shows a young American audience enthusiastically cheering on Sakamoto on the popular TV show, was aired domestically by Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc. the same month, but then it disappeared.