Best-of list · City Guide
The best karaoke bars in Tokyo, from Shinjuku's all-night karaoke towers to Shimokitazawa's intimate neighbourhood rooms. Detailed editorial notes —
The short answer
9 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
The best karaoke bars in Tokyo are where karaoke should be experienced — at the source, in a city that turned a modest entertainment concept into an entire architecture of private, meticulously maintained rooms with catalogues numbering in the hundreds of thousands of songs. We have visited Tokyo four times specifically to understand what the rest of the world is still catching up to. This is what we found.
Shinjuku contains more karaoke per square metre than any neighbourhood on earth. The kabukicho entertainment district alone has dozens of dedicated chains alongside smaller independent operations. For first-time visitors to Tokyo karaoke, Shinjuku is the right starting point. Here are the venues that earn repeat visits.