Daisuke Inoue

For the Japanese rugby union player, see Daisuke Inoue (rugby union). For the Japanese singer and composer, see Daisuke Inoue (singer).

Daisuke Inoue
Born (1940-05-10) May 10, 1940 (age 84)
Osaka, Empire of Japan
Known forInvention of karaoke

Daisuke Inoue (井上 大佑, Inoue Daisuke, born May 10, 1940) is a Japanese businessman best known as an inventor of the karaoke machine. Inoue, a musician in his youth employed in backing businesspeople who wanted to sing in bars, invented the machine as a means of allowing them to sing without live back-up. He did not patent the machine and so did not directly profit, but he continued to work in the industry it generated, including patenting a pesticide for karaoke machines. Named one of Time magazine's "Most Influential Asians of the Century" in 1999, he was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and in 2005 was the subject of the Japanese biographical film Karaoke.

Recent studies have revealed the existence of several people who invented and commercialized karaoke machines prior to Inoue.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ "Selection from TOP 100 Japanese Innovations of "Karaoke"" (PDF). IP Friends Connections (11). December 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 9, 2019. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  2. ^ "History of Karaoke". All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  3. ^ Ugaya, Hiromichi (烏賀陽弘道) (2008). Karaoke hishi : sōi kufū no sekai kakumei. Tōkyō: Shinchōsha. ISBN 9784106102929. OCLC 291123688.