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Paper short abstract

The paper proposes an exploration of hito kara (hitori karaoke), a relatively recent manifestation of karaoke-singing in Japan involving individual singing within the context of venues for one. Hito kara is situated with reference to changing leisure practices over karaoke’s fifty year history.

Paper long abstract

It has been fifty years since karaoke-singing first emerged and became popularised in urban and suburban entertainment districts of Western Japan. Although initially confined to the realm of “after hours” (Plath 1964) eating, drinking and socialising, strongly associated with (mostly) male company employees and the sarariman (salaryman) culture of the post-war decades preceding the collapse of the economic bubble, with the development of private, rented by-the-hour karaoke spaces (so-called karaoke boxes or karaoke rooms) in the mid-1980s, karaoke became established more widely across Japanese society, catering to families, women, the elderly and, perhaps most notably, the young (albeit with some initial trepidation about teenage school children gathering together in privately rented, unchaperoned karaoke venues). More recently, the emergence of hito kara (hitori karaoke), wherein individuals sing alone in karaoke venues specially adapted for one (sometimes simultaneously communicating about the experience with friends and associates via social media), seemingly represents a novel articulation of sociality within the context of karaoke singing, potentially reflecting a longer term trajectory away from more richly socially contextualized forms of leisure tinged with feelings of social obligation, towards uses of leisure time which is individually negotiated and relatively more reflective of personal preferences. This paper proposes an initial exploration of this most recent incarnation of karaoke singing, reflecting also on methodological tools and strategies available for undertaking Anthropological/qualitative research in post-covid Japan.