Karaoke began in the early 1980's in Japan and since then has taken Asia by storm and is popular today all around the world. Karaoke is basically the singing of lyricist by an amateur singer (or someone in many cases a tone deaf singer) along with a recorded instrumental version of the song.

The songs are usually love ballads or the well know 'classic' hits and usually sung in English although many do have Japanese verses and or choruses. Usually the lyrics are displayed on a monitor along with lovely dream sequence style music videos. The singer has a microphone and sings along while reading the screen.

The Karaoke bar is a fun pastime for young and old in Japan. Here rooms are hired some are romantic rooms for only two people where lovers can sing to each other while others are party rooms where a large group can sing along or be entertained. These venues usually have huge collections of music to choose from and many have special theme lighting like mirror balls and flashing lights to make the outing even more fun.  Many of the venues serve drinks and some even food.

Originally the Karaoke system ran on tapes and laser disc video but now many of the venues use stat of the art digital media with studio like technology integrating DVD, MP3 and other high tech apparatus.  Many even have facilities to change the pitch and tempo of the singers.

Karaoke is so big in Japan that recently several mobile phone companies have added special features to some of their phone products so people can download and sing karaoke to their phones. There are even taxis which have Karaoke  some the passengers sing others the driver sings. 

Many of the larger restaurants will turn to Karaoke as an entertainment after dinner is served and some even have Karaoke rooms to keep the children entertained while their parents are having dinner.

It is beloved the karaoke originated in Kobe and the first machine was invented by Inoue Daisuke from Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture in the 1970'. He was a musician who played in bars and couldn't sing so he got the idea of playing the music and using guests dining as singers.  Inoue with some friends one who was a furniture maker and another an electronics specialist came up with what is believed to be the first karaoke machine called juke. It was a machine which for a 100 yen coin would play a song.  He made 11 machines followed and they became so popular that another 10,000 were produced.