Karaoke in Japan: How It Works and What It Costs

Karaoke in Japan is not a bar with a stage. You rent a small private room — a karaoke box — and sing only in front of the people you came with. It is cheap, it is everywhere, and it is open far later than you expect. The only genuinely confusing part is the pricing, so that is where this guide starts.

The one thing everyone gets wrong about the price

The room charge is quoted per person, per 30 minutes — not per room, and not per hour. A sign advertising ¥300 does not mean ¥300 for your group for the night. It means ¥300 each, every half hour.

In practice, two hours on a weekday evening in a tourist area costs about ¥2,000 per person at the moment, with most places falling between ¥760 and ¥4,800. Daytime is dramatically cheaper than night — often less than half.

Free time: the option worth knowing

Free time (フリータイム) is a flat rate that covers a whole block of hours rather than charging you by the half hour. If you plan to stay more than about two hours, it is almost always the cheaper choice. The catch is that the block ends at a fixed time — a daytime free time plan usually stops in the early evening, not whenever you have had enough.

Daytime free time in the areas below currently starts from ¥920 per person.

The one-drink rule

Most chains require each person to order at least one drink on top of the room charge (ワンドリンクオーダー制). Budget roughly ¥400–500 per person for this. Some stores instead include a self-serve soft drink bar in the room charge, which is better value if you are staying a while. All-you-can-drink alcohol (飲み放題, nomihodai) is usually a separate add-on.

Before you go

• Bring your passport. Some chains require free membership before you can use a room, and signing up needs photo ID. Manekineko, the largest chain in Japan, requires this at every branch.
• Weekends and holidays cost more than weekdays, sometimes substantially.
• Prices vary by branch, not just by chain. Two branches of the same chain a ten minute walk apart can differ by thousands of yen for the same two hours. It is worth checking before you walk in.
• Late night is a different price band. Many stores switch to a higher rate after around 6pm or 7pm, and some run all night.

Inside the room

You order songs on a tablet remote. Both major systems in Japan — DAM and JOYSOUND — have English-language catalogues, and the remotes themselves usually have an English mode; look for a language button on the screen. Food and drinks are ordered either from the same tablet or by picking up the phone on the wall. Staff will call the room when your time is nearly up, and you can normally extend if the room is free.

Find prices near you

We track live room rates for 2,091 karaoke stores across Japan. Every store sits on one map with its current price on the pin, so you can see at a glance which door to walk through.

The map itself is in Japanese, but the price on each pin is a number in yen, so it reads the same in any language. The districts worth heading to lists the areas with the most karaoke in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Sapporo.