Inventor of first karaoke machine, Shigeichi Negishi, dies aged 100

Negishi, whose 1967 “Sparko Box” prototype is among several devices credited with ushering in Japan’s karaoke craze, died from natural causes in January. His death, which was made public last week, was confirmed to CNN by Shiro Kataoka, managing director of the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association. Born in 1923, Negishi founded and ran a company that assembled car stereos for automobile manufacturers in northern Tokyo.

” Marketing the device as a Sparko Box, he sold them alongside lyrics cards and reportedly produced and installed around 8,000 around Japan, mainly at bars and restaurants. By the time Negishi stopped selling the products in the 1970s, several rival machines had been invented and taken to market. “At that time, it was not customary to sing in stores, so it may have been inevitable that sold as background music,” reads Negishi’s entry on the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association’s website.

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