Yellow Magic Orchestra

In 1984, Hosono, Sakamoto and Takahashi decided stop working together as Yellow Magic Orchestra, deciding to return to their solo careers, though they each would occasionally join one of the other two in concert as a guest performer. Though they stopped playing together, however, they were careful to not officially 'break up' the group, instead using a Japanese term meaning "spreading out".

In 1993, the trio briefly reunited for Technodon. However, to avoid lawsuits and to avoid ending the "Yellow Magic Orchestra is spreading out" status of the group, that album was credited it to Y̶M̶O̶, rather than to Yellow Magic Orchestra.

In the early 2000's, Hosono and Takahashi reunited in a project called Sketch Show. Sakamoto occasionally also joins them for performances; when Sakamoto performs with Sketch Show, the trio took on a new, different name - Human Audio Sponge. Human Audio Sponge was always a one-off type of group, however, whereas Sketch Show was a formal group.

In mid-2007, Human Audio Sponge performed as Yellow Magic Orchestra for the first time since the original breakup, as part of the 2007-07-07 Live Earth concerts.

In August of 2007, Hosono, Sakamoto and Takahashi decided to make the reformed Yellow Magic Orchestra official again, but using a new name, combining both of the previous names the trio had used - "Human Audio Sponge and Yellow Magic Orchestra", aka: HASYMO.