Shigeichi Negishi, the Japanese engineer who created the world's first-ever karaoke machine, had died at the age of 100.

Negishi's daughter Atsumi Takano confirmed the news this week to journalist Matt Alt, who interviewed Negishi for his 2020 book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. He died of natural causes on Jan. 26.

In 1967, Negishi created and released the Sparko Box, the unofficial prototype that would later become the karaoke machine. Negishi was the head of an electronics company when the idea first came to him. According to some, Negishi was singing to himself at the office one day when an employee made fun of him, prompting him to realize that he would sound better with a backing track. With some help, he wired together a speaker, a microphone and a tape deck that played an instrumental version of Yoshio Kodama's "Mujo no Yume."

After his distributor denied the use of the name "karaoke" for the machine — as it sounded too similar to kanoke, the Japanese word for coffin — Negishi named his product the Sparko Box. The Sparko Box was never patented, but Negishi travelled across the country, selling approximately 8,000 Sparko boxes to various bars, restaurants and hotels. He stopped selling them in 1975. Another man who is often credited with pioneering the karaoke machine, Daisuke Inoue, didn't bring his version, the Juke 8, to the market until 1971.

There is only one functioning Sparko Box left in the world, and it's in the Negishi family's possession.