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Shigeichi Negishi, the Japanese entrepreneur who invented the first-ever karaoke machine, died on January 26, The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a> reports. Negishi, who was based in Tokyo, was 100 years old.<\/p>\n Journalist Matt Alt, who interviewed Negishi for his book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World<\/em><\/a>, reported the news on X<\/a> and expanded on Negishi\u2019s legacy in an obituary for The Wall Street Journal<\/em>. Negishi\u2019s daughter confirmed her father\u2019s death to Alt, stating that he died from natural causes after a fall.<\/p>\n Negishi was the head of an electronics company when he first envisioned what would become the Sparko Box\u2014a blueprint for the globally-adored karaoke machine. Legend has it that Negishi was singing to himself as he walked into his office one day in 1967. After an employee poked fun at his sub-par crooning, Negishi realized he would surely sound better with the help of a backing track.<\/p>\n Negishi, who loved singing along to the radio and television programs, eventually had an employee wire together a speaker, tape deck, and microphone, testing the prototype with an instrumental version of Yoshio Kodama\u2019s \u201cMujo no Yume.\u201d After a trial run, he took the MacGyvered machine home and \u201cconvened history\u2019s first karaoke party with his wife and children,\u201d as Alt put it.<\/p>\n