Love to sing? A Japanese toy maker¹ will soon sell a portable, personal karaoke machine so you can belt out your favorite tunes² anywhere, and without having to wait for the microphone.

The "Hi-kara" karaoke machine, by Takara Tomy, is a 7-cm cube which weighs less than a pound and works like a real machine.

Once the singer selects a song, which can be downloaded off the Internet or from special music cartridges³, the lyrics⁴ come up on a 2.4-inch display. The machine also has headphones and speakers attached.

"Hi-kara" will go on sale in October for about $100, with song cartridges costing about $40 each.

Shigekazu Mihashi, marketing⁵ director at Takara Tomy, said that the machine was aimed at youngsters who could not go into karaoke booths or parlours.

According to Japanese law, youngsters under 16 must leave karaoke parlours by 6 p.m. while those aged⁶ under 18 can stay only until 11 p.m.

"Girls who are middle-school age and under can't go to karaoke parlors⁷ by themselves even if they wanted to sing, but now they can try it at home with this new karaoke machine," Mihashi said.

Japan is the birthplace of the first karaoke machine. Karaoke singing is popular all over the world, and especially in Asia where many families own personal karaoke machines and "KTV" lounges abound⁸.

喜欢唱歌吗？日本的一家玩具生产商即将推出一款便携式私人卡拉OK机。有了它，你可以随时随地亮出歌喉，而无须排队等候麦克风。

特佳丽多美玩具公司设计的“Hi-kara”袖珍卡拉OK机7厘米见方，重不到1磅，但功能和真正的卡拉OK机一样好。

一旦演唱者选定一首歌曲，机器就会将其从网络或特殊音乐库上下载下来，歌词即出现在2.4英寸的显示屏上。该机器还附有耳机和喇叭。

“Hi-kara”将于10月发售，售价约100美元，附带的歌曲库售价约40美元。

特佳丽多美公司营销主管三桥茂一表示，这种机器的目标人群是被禁止进入卡拉OK厅的青少年。

按照日本法律，16岁以下青少年必须在下午6点之前离开卡拉OK厅，18岁以下的则必须在晚上11点之前离开。

茂一还表示，“十几岁或更小一点的姑娘们喜欢k歌而又不能进卡拉OK厅的，可以通过这种新机器在家里过过瘾。”

日本是第一台卡拉OK机的诞生地。卡拉OK之风如今已席卷全球，尤其是亚洲地区。在亚洲，KTV练歌房数不胜数，许多家庭也拥有私人卡拉OK机。

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