Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo, U.S. filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and British sculptor Antony Gormley won three of Japan's top arts prizes, the Japan Art Association said on Tuesday.

Domingo, Coppola and Gormley were joined by British architect David Chipperfield and Italian painter Michelangelo Pistoletto as 2013 laureates of the Praemium Imperiale, a 15 million yen ($150,000) prize which will be handed out on Oct 16. by Japanese Emperor Akihito's younger brother, Prince Hitachi.

"The 2013 Praemium Imperiale laureates enrich our lives and touch a common chord of humanity despite geographic and linguistic barriers," Japan Art Association chairman Hisashi Hieda said in a statement.

The prizes, for music, film, sculpture, painting and architecture, were created in 1988 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Japan Art Association and to honor Japan's late Prince Takamatsu.

The 2013 laureates join a roster of past winners who include U.S. playwright Arthur Miller, British artist David Hockney, Canadian architect Frank Gehry and a host of other household names in the arts over the 25 years they have been awarded.

Announced in Tokyo, London, Rome and other cities, the laureates were selected from lists submitted by a panel of international advisers who include former prime ministers, diplomats, politicians and global cultural figures.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Mike Collett-White and Logan K. Young)

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