
The fascinating stories and secrets behind hit Japanese products, plus parts and machines that boast the top share of niche markets. In the first half: the story behind online karaoke services which allow the latest songs to be transmitted over the net and sparked a karaoke boom in Japan. In the second half: umbrella bagging machines which allow people to easily cover a wet umbrella with a plastic bag.
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"Japan's Top Inventions"
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The behind-the-scenes tales of hit products and creations from Japan.
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This is "Japan's Top Inventions."
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On today's show...
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singing your favorite songs with karaoke.
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We tell the story of a machine
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which helped make karaoke bigger than ever in Japan.
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Later...
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On rainy days, these special devices are placed at entrances.
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We'll show you what they're used for.
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Hello, welcome to "Japan's Top Inventions."
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I'm your host, Jason Danielson.
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In the first half of our show, we take you "Behind the Creation."
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Today's topic is this.
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Karaoke, from Japan.
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The latest karaoke machines let you pick songs to sing from a tablet.
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You can find anything from classic Japanese ballads to current J POP hits.
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There are even songs in English.
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New J POP songs get karaoke versions especially quickly,
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and more tracks are always being added.
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What led to these current karaoke systems
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was this machine developed three decades ago.
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It was unlike the ones that came before, and sparked a karaoke boom.
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The museum of an electronics manufacturer in Nagoya.
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On display are products that the company has made over the years.
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Among them is this machine from 1992.
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This is our first online karaoke machine.
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An online karaoke machine.
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New songs are downloaded from a server through the phone line.
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Tracks can be stored on the internal hard drive and played back.
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New songs that were popular with young people
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were rapidly made available with this machine.
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It was really groundbreaking at the time.
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Other companies followed suit, leading to current online services.
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Our story begins in 1985.
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The news broke that private companies would be allowed to compete
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in the formerly government-controlled telecommunications sector.
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Businesses would have the chance to use existing networks
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to facilitate new means of data transfer.
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One of the companies that saw the business potential in this
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was a printer and fax machine maker.
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As a foray into data transmission,
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the company developed this software vending machine.
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The device was set up in computer shops.
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You inserted your money, selected the game or program you wanted,
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and the software would be sent through the phone line.
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The data was written onto a floppy disk.
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This is Ikami Kazunori,
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an engineer who was in his fourth year at the company at the time.
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This is what he had heard about the vending machine.
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At the peak, there were about 300 machines.
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The data was written to a floppy disk on the spot,
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so as long as you had a machine running, you could sell software.
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One day...
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the company received a call.
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It was from a business connected with an art college.
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"Our students have created audio sequencer versions
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of classical music in the public domain.
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Could you sell that data with your vending machines?"
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Audio sequencer data has numerical values
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for all the instruments and notes in a song.
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Using special software and a chip
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which contains the sounds of various instruments like the piano or guitar,
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this music data can be played back as an audio track.
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The issue was whether the data could be sent over a phone line.
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But the file size was actually much smaller than a real audio recording,
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so it wouldn't be an issue.
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These data versions of songs were
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something like 300 or a 1,000 times smaller.
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The files can be very lightweight.
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The development team agreed to the business's proposal.
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The music data was made available on the vending machines.
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But the company found that the music wasn't selling well.
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It wasn't a hit like they had hoped.
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Was there something else they could do related to music?
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The team had an idea.
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Commercial karaoke machines found in bars and restaurants.
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It was a three-billion-dollar industry.
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The machines played songs off large laser discs.
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They took up a lot of space,
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so there was a limit to how many songs could be offered.
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You can fit about 30 tracks total on a laser disc.
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There were automatic disc loaders,
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but the machines were about the size of a fridge, just really large.
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This led the team members
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to come up with their concept of an online karaoke service.
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New songs would be kept on the company's server.
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Using the phone network and their vending machines,
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they would deliver music to the local karaoke devices.
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The music data would be stored on hard drives,
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which meant more songs and less physical space taken up.
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And so, the concept for their karaoke service was set.
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The team got to work straight away.
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The first thing the team did
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was buy all the karaoke song catalogues that were available.
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They would find the most popular songs between catalogues,
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and get permission to create the music data for them.
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Their search turned up some 3,000 songs to work on.
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Next, they procured the CDs which contained the tracks.
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But there was no way they'd be able to create the music data themselves.
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So, the team turned to professional musicians for help.
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Musicians listened to the CDs,
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and wrote down the sheet music for each instrument on each track.
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The information from the sheet music would then be entered into the computer.
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But there were 3,000 songs with multiple instruments to get through.
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It was a dizzying task.
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Creating the music data was the most important part.
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In order to create the data for 3,000 songs,
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we needed strength in numbers.
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We had about 100 people working on it together in the end.
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It just took plain effort and dedication.
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The team made steady progress each day in front of the computers.
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One by one, the songs were put together.
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Now the team needed to figure out the actual machine
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which would be placed in the bars and restaurants.
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At the heart would be sound chips capable of reproducing the instruments
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in the sequencer data, like piano or guitar.
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These were the key components of synthesizers.
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Electronic instrument manufacturers made them.
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The team made repeated visits to a leading Japanese company in the field,
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hoping to secure their help.
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It took time but eventually, the company agreed.
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The components at the time
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lacked some of the instruments we needed for karaoke,
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such as the shamisen, a Japanese string instrument.
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They were able to add those for us on a custom circuit board.
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With that, we had all the pieces ready.
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The team was able to secure new sound chips for their machine.
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They were one step closer to realizing their concept.
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And so, the team had its sights
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set on launching their first online karaoke service.
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The machine would go from the size of a fridge
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down to something that could rest on a table.
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But there were still many hurdles to overcome.
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The goal was in sight for the team,
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but would they be able to compete with existing karaoke products?
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They needed to convince the company's management group.
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There was no turning back at this point.
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A plan was set in motion for their pitch meeting.
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The team figured out what songs the management group liked.
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Then they picked out songs that were easy to sing and let them try it out.
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It went so well that the management group agreed
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this would appeal to most people out there.
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That this really could work.
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So the team got the go ahead.
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Finally, in September 1992,
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the company's first online karaoke machine was finished.
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The team went to sell their product to various drinking establishments.
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They pointed out the pros of their online karaoke service.
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But not many were convinced.
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The reason was immediately apparent.
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Most karaoke singers at these pubs were middle-aged or older.
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The company hadn't been able to get permission
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for many of the older hits that appealed to this particular group of people.
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There were a lot of songs that we just couldn't get the rights for.
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And they were the ones that were popular at the shops we were targeting.
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We heard that customers giving our machines a try would get mad
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that their song wasn't on there.
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Was there another way to sell their service?
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The team looked towards rental karaoke rooms,
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which were gaining in popularity.
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These were large facilities
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which housed many smaller rooms and booths for rental.
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They were becoming a hit with younger people.
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With this new target in mind,
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the developers looked towards adding more songs to their service.
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They watched all the music programs they could on TV,
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trying to figure out what young people wanted to sing.
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Their search came up with 2,000 songs.
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After securing the right permissions,
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they got to work creating the music data.
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The team worked over many days and nights.
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After two months, they were able to assemble the 2,000 tracks.
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The team had created a machine
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that could play from a basic set of 5,000 songs.
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The end of 1992.
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To celebrate the completion of the new machine,
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the staff that worked on the music data gathered to have a party.
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They rented out a banquet hall and of course,
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brought one of their new karaoke machines.
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Everyone had a blast, singing their hearts out.
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Despite its small size,
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the machine played songs for over four hours with no repeated tracks.
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Someone in charge of the banquet hall was watching all this go on.
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He tapped one of the team members on the back.
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Had they made too much noise?
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The team member cautiously turned around.
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"Excuse me. Could you sell me this machine?"
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Unlike with laser discs, you can get straight to another track.
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You really could just keep on singing with our machine.
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I hear the man from the banquet hall saw this and asked for one on the spot.
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After all that had happened, it was so validating.
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That was how the value of the online karaoke service became recognized.
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Afterwards, machines were installed at rental karaoke rooms across Japan,
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with young people lining up to have a turn.
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The online karaoke service led to an unprecedented karaoke boom in Japan.
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How do experts view this invention?
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We're joined by Yuino Natsumi to learn more.
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Welcome to the show.
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Thanks for having me.
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How did karaoke in Japan
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change after the introduction of online karaoke services?
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Simply put, the number of songs vastly increased.
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Laser disc karaoke required discs to be sent to the shop.
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But with online karaoke services,
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you can quickly send songs over the net,
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like the new ones that young people want.
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I believe that shift to a younger market is thanks to online karaoke services.
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What kind of significance do you think karaoke holds with Japanese people?
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You could say karaoke really suits the character of Japanese people.
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Many tend not to assert themselves.
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Or they're a bit reserved, and conscious of others.
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But when you hold the mic, you're the star.
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Karaoke gives people that power, that opportunity.
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I think that's part of what really grabbed the Japanese people.
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What sorts of advances can we expect with karaoke in the future?
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I think there will be features for people who aren't as good at karaoke.
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For example, correcting pitch in real time.
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An AI would determine what the right pitch is
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for what you're trying to sing and automatically adjust in real time.
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I think features like this will become possible in the future.
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Thank you for your time. It was nice speaking with you.
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Thanks for having me.
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Top Niche Creations.
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Our next segment is "Top Niche Creations."
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Today, we're looking at this special box.
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Do you know what this is?
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It's something that's placed at the entrances of office buildings
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and commercial facilities across Japan on a rainy day.
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Just what is it for?
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We sent our reporter to find out.
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Hey everyone, this is Cyrus Nozomu Sethna.
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I am here in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture,
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bit of a distance from Tokyo.
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Now, why am I here today you ask?
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Well, to visit this company over here
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to see what they make and how it benefits the people of Japan.
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So, let's take a look.
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The company specializes in metalworking.
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As we approach the entrance...
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Would you look at this incredible structure right over here.
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We've got what looks like a container of some sort
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and what looks like a giant umbrella sticking halfway inside.
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It's almost like a surreal art piece
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but there is a genuine function to how this thing works.
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We asked the creator, Murakami Toshiyuki,
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to learn more about what this object is for.
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This is our company's main product, but twice the normal size.
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It's used for something with wet umbrellas.
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- Wet umbrellas?
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Here is the actual device.
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Murakami shows me how it works.
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So it goes in here.
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Put it down the hole,
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and then pull sideways.
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I see. It went right in.
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The device is used to put a bag over a wet umbrella.
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Insert your umbrella...
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pull towards yourself, and your umbrella is bagged.
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What's the reasoning behind bagging a wet umbrella?
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If the floor of a shop gets wet from the rain,
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that becomes a slipping hazard.
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Or, books in a bookstore could get wet.
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Shops want to avoid these kinds of problems.
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Just how does this device get the bag to go on?
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We were given the chance to take it apart and find out.
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Just like that?
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And then this comes out.
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I see. So this is what the key component looks like.
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Let's take a closer look at this piece.
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As the umbrella pushes down,
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the piece slides into the mouth of the bag and opens it up.
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This mechanism was inspired by a certain something.
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So where did the idea come from?
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This right here.
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- A shoehorn?
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I was using one to slip on my shoes one day when it hit me,
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that this just might work.
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Around 100,000 devices have shipped since they were created in 1994.
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They're currently used at offices and shopping centers across Japan.
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Development started after Murakami spotted the umbrella bags
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at the entrance of a hospital one rainy day.
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The rain was pouring, the wind was blowing,
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but people were struggling at the entrance to get their umbrellas in a bag.
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Was there really no better way?
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The world is full of things that people have put effort into improving.
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So many things have been made more convenient.
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It felt like people were forgetting about the umbrella bags.
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Would it be possible to automate the bagging?
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Murakami dove into the design process.
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The shoehorn had inspired the mechanism for opening the bags,
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but it wasn't working well at first.
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The opening here is all stuck together, like this.
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That's where another idea came in.
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I was inspired by this.
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An envelope.
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There's a height difference between the pocket here and the flap.
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Because of this difference, it's easy to slip a finger in, or anything.
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It's interesting how you were inspired by all these everyday objects.
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There really are hints all around us.
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Amazing.
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It's been 30 years since the first device.
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Now, there are models with a mechanism to quickly remove the umbrella bag...
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and ones for collapsible umbrellas.
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Devices have even been sold to museums in Europe,
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and luxury hotels throughout Asia.
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Before leaving, we asked Murakami about what he's working on next.
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Are there other things you're thinking about creating?
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Yes. I'm thinking of going beyond umbrellas.
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Make bagging devices for other things,
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devices to enclose other objects.
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It would be good to keep expanding into devices like that, I think.
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The company is also working on improvements to the bags for the umbrellas.
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This is one of their new ones.
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In order to reduce CO2 emissions,
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the bag uses a 25% blend of bioplastic derived from sugar cane.
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It also has a loop to help prevent the bag from slipping off the umbrella
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due to the weight of the water accumulating at the bottom.
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Who would have thought this little bag had all these features?
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That's all for this episode of "Japan's Top Inventions."
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We'll leave you with what came next
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for the online karaoke service from the first half of the show.
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See you next time! And stay inventive.
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(It's been 30 years since the company's first online karaoke machine.)
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(The newest models allow access to over 340,000 tracks.)
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(There are songs in many languages, including English, Korean, and Chinese.)
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(Ikami Kazunori helped develop the online karaoke service.)
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(It's his first time seeing the original machine in some time.)
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We make devices that make people happy.
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That's an extremely gratifying job to do.
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Karaoke is at the heart of such an enormous industry.
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I'm so glad to have been able to contribute to something like that.
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I'm very proud of the work that we've accomplished.