Japanese "box" style Karaoke
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The type of karaoke familiar to unfortunate UK pub-goers is very different from what is probably, on a global scale, the most intensively practiced variety - the Japanese "box" style of singalong. In this massively popular form of entertainment, a group of people, numbering from 2 to perhaps 15 in larger establishments, rent out, for a small hourly fee, a small room, usually lined with nice comfy chairs or sofas centred around a nice coffee table, and fitted with its own TV set/hifi system all ready to play any of your favourite tunes from a sizeable, catalogued collection. The programming of the system is left to you1, and you are usually provided with an intercom system or bell which can be used to order food and drink, or at least to call an attendant to take an order. Some smaller establishments feature vending machines selling some awesome vended food, with burgers, yakisoba fried noodles and okonomiyaki arriving steaming hot from the machine's gaping maw.
Singing
The karaoke-ists settle down with their favourite beverage and, passing the microphones from person to person, bawl out their rousing tunes in private, causing no unpleasantness to other frequenters of the establishment, who are mostly secluded in their own little boxes merrily singing away. As the songs play, the large TV screen shows pretty panoramas, street scenes or often soft porn to accompany your song, MTV video style, as well as showing you in the standard fashion what the lyrics are and the speed at which they should ideally be sung. For those less inclined to sing, whether from an inadequate alcohol intake or an early burst of over-enthusiasm leading to throatal soreness, hours of fun can be had merely trawling through the catalogue, which as well as the standard selection of old favourites will invariably feature all manner of obscure and forgotten tracks guaranteed to flood the mind of the most hardened anti-songster with waves of happy nostalgia.2
Ladies
There are dozens of such establishments in every Japanese town, and they are always popular and bustling. Another common trait is a special deal for daytime users, and the boxes are often full during the afternoons with packs of housewives drinking "Ume-shu"3 and singing away (or, as they often put it, "practising") in small groups, often for periods of five or six hours at a stretch. Here the ladies hone their singing talents, preparing themselves for the ordeal of having to perform before a less friendly audience, perhaps consisting of a husband4 and some kind of business cronies. As a result they become highly trained singing machines, sometimes achieving near-perfect mimicry of the original singer, but more often creating some kind of beautiful but bizarre sounding cross between Frank Sinatra singing My Way and Mickey Rooney's terrible Japanese neighbour in Breakfast at Tiffany's, as a result of the (fairly common) use of katakana5 versions of the song's lyrics on the TV screen. The most accomplished of these achieve the ultimate glory of appearing on one of Japan's many karaoke themed TV shows.
Lurve
Another group often found frequenting karaoke boxes are courting couples. Quite apart from being a pleasant, romantic place to spend an evening alone with a loved one, quietly whispering love songs to one another over a bottle of wine, karaoke boxes provide privacy and comfort at a reasonable hourly price, compared to the cost of a Love Hotel. Thus the boxes, more often than not, become temporary love-nests for the lust-lorn youth of overcrowded Japan.
Gaijin
1The system often has facilities to add all manner of loopy sound effects to the backing tracks, from tweaking the bass or treble to adding boomy echo effects2Although it should of course be noted that this selection varies widely from place to place.3An alcoholic beverage popular with the ladies, traditionally flavoured with Ume plums but now available in a bewildering variety of flavours; a kind of Japanese alcopop.4Yes, Japan really is behind enough in terms of sexual liberation for this sort of generalisation to apply pretty much, well, generally.5One of the Japanese writing systems, or syllabaries, which provides a close, but far from perfect match for the sounds of foreign languages. Lacks a clear L sound.6How the Japanese refer to the Western, Roman alphabet
