Shigeichi Negishi

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.

Biography Negishi was born in the ward of Itabashi in Tokyo, Japan on November 29, 1923. His mother ran a tobacco store and his father was a public official who oversaw regional elections. As a child, he made cardboard cityscapes After his release in 1947, Negishi sold Olympus cameras and later founded the consumer electronics company Nichiden Kogyo in 1956.