Day in the Life of a Japanese Karaoke Box Worker

A day in the Life of a Japanese Private Karaoke Box Worker in Tokyo Japan. This is Japan work life in Tokyo as single person living in a 1K apartment and working at large Japanese company with a very Japanese work culture. Japanese employees even wear a SHASHO(社章), a company badge that’s issued to employees when they are hired. In Japan, many salarymen wear it proudly as sign of prestigious especially when working at a large company. We see the employees morning routine, full day at work as well as what he does after work. Masa works at BIG ECHO, a leading Karaoke chain in Japan. In fact, Karaoke and Karaoke boxes are deeply embedded Japanese culture and entertainment, as students sing after school, adults sing during and after drinking parties, and even individual users come here to practice. It’s become a part of everyday Japanese life. And unlike some countries where Karaoke is commonly performed in a room filled with strangers, In Japan the Karaoke box aka room, allows for small groups of friends to enjoy each other’s singing in privacy.
With more than 439 facilities all throughout Japan, the company’s 6300 dedicated workers ensure that their customers of all ages have a fun and entertaining experience each and every time. And Masa is an important piece as he’s the chief manager of 3 shops located in Shibuya, and this is one of them, located on center-gai street, the heart of Shibuya. The Karaoke is open 24 hours a day, so the staff work in shifts to ensure a smooth operation. Today, Masa works the day shift which starts at 1PM, but he also works the overnight shift as well as the early morning shifts depending on the day.

BIG ECHO Official Website [ENG] ：https://big-echo.jp/?lang=en
＊This was filmed in January 2024
＊Masa starts his work day at 1PM

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this is a day in the life of a Japanese karaoke box [Music] [Music] worker this is Masa 37 years old living in the center of Tokyo and he’s just waking up for [Music] work he lives alone in this 1K apartment meaning one room with kitchen bath and toilet in Japan they use a unique notation system to described real estate layouts for instance one LDK indicates one room with living dining and kitchen which is equivalent to 1 BR in the US Japanese apartments are Compact and often lack separate living and dining areas so LDK needs to be speci [Music] specified M has lived in this apartment for the last 4 years he moved here to be close to work interestingly the average duration of residence for a single person household in Japan is typically 2 to 4 years see rental contracts usually force a 2-year contract renewal fee which could be up to 1 month’s worth of rent so many residents decide to move to a new place at the time of renewal what are you eating hu Mayes looks good when did you get it hey you have a lot of manga what’s your favorite cool do you play games too like [Music] what nice he has a shaso a company badge that’s issued to employees when they’re hired in Japan many seller men wear it proudly as a sign of prestige especially when working at a large company good morning everyone I’m back with another day in the life and this one I’ve always been curious on on how the day goes so we’re finally doing it Masa should be coming shortly so all we have to do now is wait good morning did you sleep well last night good here masa’s originally from Sait and moved to Tokyo in order to further his work career it’s pretty common for Japanese and neighboring prefectures like Sait Chiba Yokohama and ibaraki to move to Tokyo for worker school as there are many more opportunities here nice he’s arrived at the nearest station so he commutes the work by train which is typical lucky for him he’s only a few stops away so it only takes him about 20 minutes door to door which is a highly desired commute time for many Japanese salarymen his workplace is in chibuya one of the more popular in Trendy areas in Tokyo and every day he passes through scramble Crossing which is known as the busiest Crossing in the world as an average of 1,000 people walk across it at one time and up to 3,000 people during peak times so Masa works at Big Echo a leading karoke chain in Japan in fact karoke and karoke boxes are deeply embedded in Japanese culture and entertainment as students sing after school adults sing during and after drinking parties and even individual users come here to practice the list goes on but at the end of the day it’s part of everyday Japanese life with more than 439 facilities all throughout Japan the company’s 6,300 dedicated workers ensure that their customers of all ages have a fun and entertaining experience each and every time and Masa an important piece as he’s the chief manager of three shops located in shabuya and this is one of them located on senty Street the heart of shabuya [Music] so today masa’s working the day shift starting at 100: p.m. and since karoke is a 24-hour business in Japan there’s always someone working when he arrives as soon as he clocks in he diligently begins his morning tasks starting with cleaning the five floors of karoke boxes it’s his responsibility to ensure that it’s in a presentable condition for all of its visiting customers so he thoroughly checks each area including the drink bar kitchen and even toilets it’s typical in Japan for employees to take pride in a clean workplace ingrained in them since elementary school where all students share the daily responsibility of cleaning their classrooms and school facilities so how long do you clean for nice [Music] after cleaning he moves onto his office work checking emails performing HR related tasks ordering supplies and preparing in store campaigns and events mind you not only for this Koke but two other locations on top of this it’s pretty loud in here huh so does it get louder at night yeah I can imagine by the way have you had any weird requests from customers oh did you sing interesting while he does his office work he covers the front desk as well oh he’s taking a reservation during Peak customer hours and busy Seasons like the end of the year or long holidays rooms quickly get filled so it’s common for customers to make reservations in advance nice Mas is checking customers in generally customers can choose a course before starting whether it’s a free time course a set number of hours or including an all you can drink course and so on at the end of the session customers will receive a call from the front desk notifying them that their time is complete at which point they can decide to finish up or extend their [Music] time once the customers leave the workers will start to clean the room uh this space may be a bit unique with multiple tablets microphones and a food menu unlike some countries where Koke is commonly performed in a room filled with strangers in Japan the Koke box allows for small group of friends to enjoy each other singing in privacy oh is that a camera can you see customers from the office by the way what do you like most about working here ever since he was a kid he’s been into sports so much so that he pursued a major in sports science but when it finally came down to entering the workforce he decided to explore different industries that also entertained and made people happy like sports and at the time he enjoyed Koke so he thought the Koke entertainment industry would be a good fit for him [Music] now he’s training a new employee on how to correctly set up a room as every item must be set perfectly each and every time such as the room temperature placement of hangers location of the tablet Etc it’s his responsibility to ensure that all of the workers memorize these settings so that their customers are welcomed into a comfortable room for every visit so I think Ma is going to be doing a little bit more cleaning so while he’s doing that let’s see what’s popping around this place okay so let’s explore the floor just a little bit okay so it looks like this is the drink bar section and they got a pretty interesting soda dispenser It’s All Digital and then you can choose the different languages they even have a big Echo original drink looks like they have iced coffee they have Blended coffee cocoa tea with lemon strawberry Olay they have Frozen slushies I think I might try to get some of that later myself okay let’s see what’s going on in here oh this is the kitchen area I think excuse me can I ask you a question what are you doing right now oh what are you responsible for so how long have you been working here oh yeah I saw you earlier she’s a university student working part-time part-timers make up about 90% of their Workforce understanding able since the business runs 24 hours a day has anything surprised you since you started working here well now you know thanks nice the workers are preparing the food orders for customers surprisingly the variety of food and drinks offered at Japanese karoke is impressive right now she’s making ramen but of course they have menu items such as Pizza fried chicken french fries and even dessert since there are more than 60 food items and almost 200 drink items on the menu it’s a lot to learn for the workers with such an offering many Japanese use a karoke box as they would in isaka you can actually hear a lot of people singing right now maybe we can go into one of these rooms sorry to bother you is it cool to ask you a few questions do you come here often nice are you a pro or it’s daytime don’t you have work okay what kind of songs do you sing awesome why did you choose this specific K that makes sense thanks Masa what are you doing now as mentioned earlier he’s managing two other stores in the area so he usually visits them during a shift to ensure that they two are running smoothly right now he’s going to the mam matu zaka store which is literally a 5minute walk from the Koke he was just at next he quickly checked the store sales and discusses any issues that may need to be resolved he says that the most challenging part of his job is communication not necessarily with customers but rather with his workers since there are so many different employees between the three stores all with varying experience opinions and backgrounds he makes it a point to always be fair and to try to understand things from their perspective when issues [Music] arise now back in the senta guy karoke he finally has his lunch break and I guess he’s eating the store’s food today do you often eat the food here cool do you get a discount that’s a great deal he says that many of the workers use their employee discount also known as shawti I don’t know what it’s like in other countries but a 50% discount seems more than fair despite preparing his own food he continues to follow the same operation rules for the kitchen ensuring that he washes his hands sanitizes and wears masks and [Music] gloves I guess he’s having yucki soba and taco yucky [Music] oh he’s done eating already how are you going to spend the rest of your break so what else do you do on your free time oh what have you been listening to recently oh dope oh really ha you’re OG [Music] G so what he’s doing is yii Street solicitation Kar and restaurants are pretty competitive especially in busy areas like shabuya so it’s common practice for these type of places to have one of their employees stand in front of the business in h to attract new customers how do you find potential customers how what do you mean how many are usually in a group how long do they sing for wow that’s like all day so it looks like mat’s going to be out here for just a little bit longer so while he’s doing that let’s see what’s rocking [Music] these rooms right here are kind of themed let’s see if we can go into them and check them out so it looks like it has some bunny rabbits some mushrooms I think that’s the mirror from the wicked witch this room says Cinderella let’s go inside nice chandelier here you got the glass slipper pretty cool hok often have themed rooms and here they currently have princess rooms and I guess this is The Little Mermaid room do look like you’re under the sea you got the blue tiles here you got the blue and kind of translucent chandelier seaweed and fish yeah Under the Sea looks like they even have a smoking area this is the Smoky area right here pretty cool just like an open space I guess you can’t smoke inside over there but if you do want to smoke you can smoke in here there’s so many people here [Music] hey finally finished tonight he’s going out with the managers from the other two karoke stores he manages so he quickly gets ready to meet up with them since the karoke itself is located in the busiest area of Shibuya it’s always easy to find a spot for a quick drink with co-workers and friends after work a nice convenience when working in such a lively City area I guess they’re going to a highball bar nearby hey how long have you been working at the company what did you do before this really what kind of singer yo can you sing [Laughter] something why don’t come [Music] so how long did it take you to become a store manager wow you must be smart oh what is that test about what’s the answer to those questions then got it the three emphasize that while making profit is essential their top priority is always to put all of their effort into making their customer smile I can see why they’re managers okay so it looks like Masa and his friends are going to be here until probably 10:00 and then he’s going to go home after that and play Apex Legends until 2:00 when he goes to sleep but that’s pretty much a day in life of a Japanese karaoke box worker if you guys like this video help me out and hit that like button if you guys want to help the channel check out the Tokyo merch as well as my hot sauce 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