An Indonesian rickshaw fitted with a karaoke machine blasts out music next to a row of food stalls as revelers sing and dance enthusiastically nearby. The musical pedicab is among a wave of innovations helping Indonesians indulge their love of singing wherever they can, ...

Karaoke establishments around the country today are not just places for singing in a group — they are increasingly for watching films, holding children’s parties or for solo-crooning sessions. Karaoke operators are offering a slew of new services that leverage their private rooms and ...

Nagoya Braille Network, a support group for people with visual impairments, has started posting lyrics written in Braille online for people who cannot read with their eyes. Music fans who are visually impaired will no longer have to memorize song lyrics before partaking in ...

Manufacturers are thinking inside the box to offer stressed-out consumers a personal sanctuary in Japan’s notoriously cramped homes. According to 2013 government statistics, the average size of a Japanese house is 94.4 sq. meters, compared to 157.2 sq. meters for the United States (2011 ...

Darkness is falling on another long, depressing night in one of America’s most marginal neighborhoods. For the 200 or so battered souls lining up outside the aging street-corner edifice housing the Central City Community Church of the Nazarene, however, this one will seem neither ...

U.S. President Barack Obama pleased Japanese in the audience on Tuesday during a welcome ceremony for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, using a Japanese greeting and hailing the country’s pop culture such as emoji emoticons, karaoke and anime. “Ohayo gozaimasu,” Obama said, starting his address ...

It’s Friday evening in Shibuya. The sun is setting, the neon is flashing and the crowds are swelling. And so with beginning-of-the-weekend fever in the air, it is perhaps little surprise that Madonna is already blaring in one karaoke room on the second floor ...

Born in Japan three decades ago, karaoke has evolved into a global fixture. Since the beginning, karaoke (empty orchestra) has manifested itself in myriad ways. Following are questions and answers about the popular entertainment system: How did karaoke come about? The prototype machine originated ...