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dexterity on assembly lines in the same noisy surroundings.15 These workers entertain themselves as an extension of their work environment. This is why the number of pachinko parlors increased most rapidly during Japan’s economic growth and in the areas where the working environment became quickly mechanized. One may also argue that pachinko attracts so many Japanese partly because it is essentially detached from direct human interaction. Playing pachinko does not require players to interact face-to-face with others. To the extent that mass culture points to daily realities which the masses wish to evade, the non-interactive quality of pachinko games indirectly testifies to the intensity of group pressures and constraints on the working and community lives of the Japanese. (c) Karaoke Karaoke (singing to a taped accompaniment) became a popular form of mass entertainment relatively recently. It is believed16 to have originated in the 1970s in a snack bar in Kobe, where management recorded a tape for use at practice sessions of professional singers. In 1976 an electronics company commenced selling a machine called ‘Karaoke 8’, which selected an eight-track cartridge tape containing four tunes. This prototype developed into laser-disk karaoke, VHD karaoke, CD karaoke, and so on, as this sort of equipment became standard in entertainment establishments popular with salarymen. Many customers had a good time diverting their minds from their cares by drinking and singing with a microphone in hand. The taped accompaniment of karaoke gave them the fantasy of singing like a professional singer on stage. As various types of family karaoke equipment came on the market, the vogue that started in amusement venues spread to some well-to-do households. Although karaoke singing takes place in the apparently collective environment of bars and pubs, singers face a television screen which displays lyrics and song-related pictures, while those who are waiting to sing are busily scanning the song list in order to choose a song, without listening to the person singing. The singer’s co-workers usually clap loudly in appreciation, but in this ambience, meaningful conversation is impossible, and this appears to give a sense of relaxation to Japanese karaoke participants.17 It is no wonder that so-called karaoke boxes, where singers can behave more audaciously, have become widespread in Japan since the late 1980s. Proliferating in the streets of busy quarters, they provide small, self-contained, soundproofed rooms where anybody can sing to the tune of karaoke music. These karaoke boxes enable song lovers to give vent to their emotions, and have gained popularity among housewives, young 15
Tada 1978, pp. 42–51.
16
AE, 25 July 1992, p. 5.
17
Sato¯ 1994, p. 114.