CNN —Shigeichi Negishi, the entrepreneur who invented the world’s first karaoke machine, has died 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. “When I asked the factory engineer, he said, ‘It’s easy,’” Negishi recalled in an account published by the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association, an industry body for Japan’s karaoke operators. Subsequent developments, including the introduction of video karaoke and networked karaoke systems, helped the phenomenon spread across Asia and the world in the following decades.

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Persons: Shigeichi Negishi, Shiro Kataoka, Negishi, ‘, ” Negishi, Leon Harris, Matt Alt, Yoshio Kodama’s, ”, “, I’d, Association’s, ” Shigeichi Negishi, Hiroko Yoda, Daisuke Inoue, Inoue Organizations: CNN, Japan Karaoke, Association ., Association, “ Locations: Japan, Tokyo, Asia