Belting your favorite song over prerecorded music into a microphone in front of friends and strangers at karaoke is a popular way for people around the world to destress after work or celebrate a friend’s birthday. The idea for the karaoke machine didn’t come from a singer or a large entertainment company but from Nichiden Kogyo, a small electronics assembly company in Tokyo. The company’s founder, Shigeichi Negishi, was singing to himself at work one day in 1967 when an employee joking...
