Shigeichi Negishi | |
---|---|
根岸 重一 | |
Born |
Tokyo, Japan | November 29, 1923
Died | January 26, 2024 | (aged 100)
Education | Hosei University |
Children | 3 |
Shigeichi Negishi (November 29, 1923 – January 26, 2024) was a Japanese engineer who invented the earliest prototype of the karaoke machine. Using a speaker, a microphone, and a tape deck, he was able to simultaneously amplify his voice and play an instrumental backing track. Although Daisuke Inoue receives more international recognition for a similar invention, the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association recognizes Negishi as the first among five independent inventors of the karaoke machine. [1]
Negishi was born in the ward of Itabashi in Tokyo, Japan on November 29, 1923. [2] His mother ran a tobacco store and his father was a public official who oversaw regional elections. As a child, he made cardboard cityscapes [2] and gained a reputation for studiousness, winning a national calligraphy competition at the age of eleven. [1] Negishi studied economics at Hosei University in Tokyo and was drafted into the Japanese Army during the Second World War. After Japan was defeated, he became a prisoner of war and was detained for two years in Singapore. [3] After his release in 1947, Negishi sold Olympus cameras and later founded the consumer electronics company Nichiden Kogyo in 1956. [1]
Eleven years later, an employee supposedly teased Negishi for his bad voice while he was singing to himself at work. Believing he would sound better with a backing track, he and his staff wired together a speaker, microphone, and tape deck. To test the machine, Negishi used an 8-track instrumental rendering of the song "Mujo no Yume" [a] by Yoshio Kodama. [1] To market the product, Negishi partnered with a friend who worked at the Japan Broadcasting Corporation and travelled throughout Japan, giving demonstrations. [4] [1] After Negishi found a distributor, the machine was dubbed the "Sparko Box" as the word karaoke sounded similar to kan'oke, the Japanese word for coffin. Marketed under various names, Negishi sold about 8,000 Sparko Boxes. [4] In 1975, Negishi dissolved his karaoke business after facing difficulties and fully retired around 1993. [3] He never patented Sparko Box, and other inventors such as Daisuke Inoue have created similar products, also receiving credit for inventing the karaoke machine. [3] His daughter expressed that he was not bothered by the lack of a patent that could have made him wealthy, stating that her father had "felt a lot of pride in seeing his idea evolve into a culture of having fun through song around the world." [2]
Negishi died due to natural causes following a fall on January 26, 2024, at the age of 100. [5] [3]
Shigeichi Negishi | |
---|---|
根岸 重一 | |
Born |
Tokyo, Japan | November 29, 1923
Died | January 26, 2024 | (aged 100)
Education | Hosei University |
Children | 3 |
Shigeichi Negishi (November 29, 1923 – January 26, 2024) was a Japanese engineer who invented the earliest prototype of the karaoke machine. Using a speaker, a microphone, and a tape deck, he was able to simultaneously amplify his voice and play an instrumental backing track. Although Daisuke Inoue receives more international recognition for a similar invention, the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association recognizes Negishi as the first among five independent inventors of the karaoke machine. [1]
Negishi was born in the ward of Itabashi in Tokyo, Japan on November 29, 1923. [2] His mother ran a tobacco store and his father was a public official who oversaw regional elections. As a child, he made cardboard cityscapes [2] and gained a reputation for studiousness, winning a national calligraphy competition at the age of eleven. [1] Negishi studied economics at Hosei University in Tokyo and was drafted into the Japanese Army during the Second World War. After Japan was defeated, he became a prisoner of war and was detained for two years in Singapore. [3] After his release in 1947, Negishi sold Olympus cameras and later founded the consumer electronics company Nichiden Kogyo in 1956. [1]
Eleven years later, an employee supposedly teased Negishi for his bad voice while he was singing to himself at work. Believing he would sound better with a backing track, he and his staff wired together a speaker, microphone, and tape deck. To test the machine, Negishi used an 8-track instrumental rendering of the song "Mujo no Yume" [a] by Yoshio Kodama. [1] To market the product, Negishi partnered with a friend who worked at the Japan Broadcasting Corporation and travelled throughout Japan, giving demonstrations. [4] [1] After Negishi found a distributor, the machine was dubbed the "Sparko Box" as the word karaoke sounded similar to kan'oke, the Japanese word for coffin. Marketed under various names, Negishi sold about 8,000 Sparko Boxes. [4] In 1975, Negishi dissolved his karaoke business after facing difficulties and fully retired around 1993. [3] He never patented Sparko Box, and other inventors such as Daisuke Inoue have created similar products, also receiving credit for inventing the karaoke machine. [3] His daughter expressed that he was not bothered by the lack of a patent that could have made him wealthy, stating that her father had "felt a lot of pride in seeing his idea evolve into a culture of having fun through song around the world." [2]
Negishi died due to natural causes following a fall on January 26, 2024, at the age of 100. [5] [3]