Playback ’94] Men and Women “Gotaimen!” on TV Screens What is the dating service “Karaoke Nutten”?

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were popular at the time. This time, we introduce a story from the October 14, 1994 issue that appeared 30 years ago, titled “A Chance to Date Girls from Other Shops: How to Play “Karaoke Nerton,” a New System Born in Nagoya.

The word “nenton” has been widely used in the dating scene since the group matchmaking program “Nenton Kohkeidan” with Tonneruzu as MC, which became a hit in the late 1980s. Matchmaking parties and blind dates were all named “Nenton parties. This article introduces a new business venture, “karaoke nerd parties,” that has sprung up in Nagoya. (Descriptions in parentheses are quoted from previous articles.)

Karaoke Box “Nerton” is Now Available

To all the men out there who are still thinking, “There’s nothing more miserable than going to karaoke with a bunch of guys. ……,” and are still in high spirits today, I say to you: “From now on, you can go to a karaoke box and have a “Nerton” party. What would you do if I told you that the time has come for you to play “Nen-ton” in a karaoke box?

What has made such a dream come true is the “KNN (Karaoke Nerton Network),” which has made its debut in Nagoya and other cities.

The system involves inserting a prepaid card into a telephone installed in the room and making a call. If the call is made by a man, he is automatically connected to a women-only room at another restaurant, and if the call is made by a woman, a video call is automatically connected to a man. After that, they are free to talk or duet while looking at the other person’s face on the screen. If they are comfortable with each other, they can meet up outside and meet in real life. The unique feature of this service is that you can connect with people who are in rooms at other restaurants.

There is nothing more awkward than being in the same karaoke box with the person you said “I’m sorry” to nearby. With this system, however, there is no need to worry. If the person you are sorry to call picks up, you can just hang up and that’s it.

What happens if there is no one on the other end of the line when you call?　In that case, the system will automatically put you on standby, so you can enjoy karaoke in anticipation until you get a call.

Unlike teleclubs, you can see the other person’s face as well as their voice, and since it is usually multiple people to people, you can use the service easily. Even if it doesn’t lead to romance, the service is very useful for recruiting people for clubs and for creating opportunities to meet new people,” says Mr. A, head of KNN’s planning office.

The reputation of the service among customers can be seen at ……

The customers who actually used the service also seemed to like it.

“The most important point is that you can see the other person’s face,” said Mr. A. “Since we are both doing karaoke, it’s light . And since we are both doing karaoke, we can call each other lightly. And if you don’t like it, you can just hit the cancel button right away.

I’ve used the service several times and have never had a strange girl come up to me. If your face is on the screen, you have to have a certain level of confidence to call. There are many girls of a high level.

The article at the time read as follows

Karaoke Nenton” is currently only in the Nagoya area, but is planning to expand into the Tokyo and Osaka areas in the future. Will this be a new kind of “encounter” that will bring about a boom in the number of people who go out to karaoke with just guys?

Was it too hard to “suddenly show your face”?

Unfortunately, this “karaoke nerd club” did not seem to boom at all. A quick search of the Internet reveals a few traces of its existence in Osaka and the Chugoku region, so it seems that it did exist outside of Nagoya, but few people know about it.

The dating scene in the 1990s was the heyday of teleclubs and two-shot dials. While the use of these services for the purpose of so-called “aid-seeking” was becoming a hot topic, this “karaoke nerd club” was considered to be a fairly healthy type of “encounter. However, from the point of view of those who came here for the purpose of karaoke, it was nothing more than a superfluous service, and above all, it was quite a hurdle to suddenly “show your face” from the start, so it is understandable that the number of users did not increase.

Even today, when online meetings are commonplace and video calls on cell phones are the norm, such a service has not appeared. In fact, some karaoke establishments offer a service that allows users to connect with others in remote locations via communication and have fun together, but they do not offer a “dating” service that connects people who do not know each other. Perhaps “Karaoke Netone” was a service that was far ahead of its time.