utagoe coffeehouse; sing-along tearoom
Dated term for a coffee shop where customers could sing together accompanied by a band or piano, popular in mid-20th-century Japan.
In the Showa era, utagoe coffeehouses were popular social spots for young people.
At a sing-along tearoom, strangers would sing songs together.
Karaoke is a modern entertainment where individuals or groups sing along to recorded music, while 歌声喫茶 was a communal singing space with live accompaniment, now largely obsolete.
Standard kanji spelling for this dated cultural term.
Mixed kana-kanji variant; less common but still seen.
Compound of 歌声 (singing voice) and 喫茶 (tea drinking, coffee shop). The term reflects the mid-20th-century Japanese phenomenon of coffeehouses that hosted group singing.