The entrepreneur who invented the karaoke machine

Shigeichi Negishi 1923–2024

Shigeichi Negishi’s invention changed bar culture and office parties around the world. An engineer and entrepreneur, Negishi liked to sing while he was working, but employees at his Tokyo electronics company were less than enthusiastic about his talent. In the belief that all he needed was the right backing track, in 1967 Negishi had one of his engineers hook up a microphone and speaker to an eight-track tape deck. He belted out “Mujo no Yume,” a 1930s song, and karaoke was born. “It was fun,” Negishi said in 2018. “I knew right away I’d discovered something new.” Born in Tokyo, Negishi loved building things with his hands even as a child, said The Wall Street Journal. He studied economics at Hosei University before being conscripted into the military, spending two years as a prisoner of war after Japan’s defeat in World War II. Returning home to occupied Japan, he “put the Englishlanguage skills he’d mastered as a POW to use” selling cameras at hotels frequented by foreigners, then built his own company assembling consumer electronics. Quickly recognizing the promise of karaoke, he began marketing a coin-operated, 18-inch machine he called the “Sparko Box” for its sparkling disco lights. Negishi “unwittingly unleashed a phenomenon,” said The Times (U.K.). Karaoke machines were soon everywhere, even in Japanese taxis. But he didn’t own the concept—indeed, musician Daisuke Inoue was long credited abroad as karaoke’s inventor—and in 1975, as competition flooded the market, Negishi gave up the business. “An inveterate tinkerer,” he continued creating new products, including an electronic talking prayer book and a kind of foldable speaker. Karaoke, though, was the invention he loved best. “He felt a lot of pride,” his daughter said, “seeing his idea evolve into a culture of having fun through song.”