Karaoke inventor Shigeichi Negishi dies at the age of 100. Coup plans: military accuses ex-president Bolsonaro of Brazil

Shigeichi Negishi, the Japanese entrepreneur and inventor of the first karaoke machine, has died at the age of 100, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. His daughter confirmed his death and said he died after a fall in Tokyo on January 26.

The story of his invention is anecdotal: after the engineer was caught singing incorrectly in his office in 1967, he felt he could spice up his singing with an accompanying song. So he put together a tape recorder, a speaker and a microphone and took the experimental device home.

In the evening, the first ever karaoke session took place with his wife and children – with an instrumental version of “Mujo no Yume” by Yoshio Kodama. This device then became the “Sparko Box”, which became the world’s first karaoke machine.

The name karaoke also comes from Negishi: it is a combination of the Japanese words for ’empty’ and ‘orchestra’. However, the distributor of the ‘Sparko Box’ was not happy with the name; it reminded him too much of the word ‘kanoke’ – which means ‘coffin’ in Japanese. Karaoke still managed to gain the upper hand.

The “Sparko Box” then went into series production; Negishi was able to sell approximately 8,000 units of his device within eight years. His sales strategy: he toured the country from bar to bar demonstrating the product live. Today, karaoke is an important part of Japanese culture. (cpf/jch)